Indian rupee ended marginally lower against dollar on Tuesday as a muted trend in domestic equities and firm crude oil prices weighed on investor sentiment. Traders remained cautious as S&P Global cut its growth forecasts for some of Asia's top economies including India, the Philippines and Malaysia, offsetting upgrades to China and South Africa and much of Latin America. The estimates, which feed into S&P's closely-followed sovereign ratings, saw India's growth projection chopped to 9.5% from 11% due to its COVID-19 outbreak. However, downside remained capped as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the much-awaited fiscal package to revive the economy ravaged by the second pandemic wave, keeping the fiscal outgo limited for the current year. On the global front, the dollar rose towards three-month highs versus major counterparts on Tuesday as coronavirus outbreaks threatened to snuff out global economic recovery with the Australian dollar and the British pound leading losses.
Finally, the rupee ended 74.23, weaker by 4 paise from its previous close of 74.19 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 74.28 and 74.20 respectively.
