MUMBAI: The Indian rupee weakened along with most of its regional peers on Tuesday as comments about trade tariffs from US President Donald Trump boosted the dollar a day after a selloff in US technology stocks had hurt the greenback.
The rupee closed at 86.5225 against the dollar, down 0.2% on the day, its biggest one-day percentage fall since Jan. 16.
Asian currencies were mostly weaker, with the offshore Chinese yuan down 0.4% at 7.28, while the dollar index rose 0.1% to 107.9.
The dollar gained after the Financial Times reported that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been pushing for new universal tariffs on US imports to start at 2.5% and rise gradually by the same amount each month.
Trump’s comments on imposing tariffs on US copper and aluminium imports also supported the dollar.
On Monday, the dollar index had declined to an over five-week low of 106.96 amid a selloff in US tech stocks.
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