Rupee drops by 61 paise to 67.69 against US dollar in the wake of Rajan's exit

Within two days of Raghuram Rajan announcing that he will not take up a second term as RBI governor, opening trade on Monday brought in bad news, as the rupee plummeted by 61 paise to 67.69 against the US dollar.

Forex dealers said apart from lower opening in the domestic equity market, fresh demand for the American currency from importers also put pressure on the rupee.

They said, however, the dollar's weakness against some currencies overseas, restricted the rupee's losses.

On Friday, rupee had recovered 13 paise to 67.08 against the American unit on account of fresh selling by bankers and exporters and recovery in stock markets.

On Saturday, Rajan said no to a second term in the post, a surprise decision the industry and opposition parties termed as the nation's loss.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex dropped 178.03 points or 0.66 per cent to 26,447.88 in early trade on Monday.

--PTI