Rupee continues to slide against dollar, hits new low of 73.77

The rupee continued its slide against the dollar, hitting a new low of 73.77 early Thursday morning. 

The Sensex crashed too in early morning trade. The Sensex had closed Wednesday at 35,975. 

It opened Thursday at 35,820 but quickly crashed to a low of 35,341 in early morning trade — a fall of close to 500 points. 

The Nifty meanwhile opened at 10,754 but dropped over 150 points in early morning trade. It had closed Wednesday at 10,858. 

The rupee has been Asia's worst-performing currency, falling over 14% against the dollar this year. 

There are a number of reasons for the fall. 

The prices of crude have in general been rising — petrol in Mumbai is selling at over Rs 90 a litre; there have also been fears that crude oil prices could sometime soon touch $100 a barrel —  and the US has been putting pressure on countries to stop buying oil from Iran.

India gets a chunk of its oil from Iran. 

The rupee has also been rattled by the trade war started by Trump with China. 

And China's yuan has fallen in recent months, leading to a dollar flight from developing economies, all of which make the dollar dearer, and the rupee less so.