On Monday, the Indian rupee fell 26 paise to 76.68 against the US dollar, mirroring a strong greenback overseas and a lacklustre trend in domestic equity markets.

The rupee opened lower against the dollar in the interbank foreign exchange market, at 76.58, and ended the day at 76.68, down 26 paise from its previous close.The rupee hit an intraday high of 76.55 and a low of 76.77 during the trading session.  The rupee had dropped 25 paise to 76.42 on Friday.

The dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was up 0.34 percent at 101.56. Brent crude futures declined 4.38 percent to USD 101.98 a barrel, the global benchmark.

The 30-share BSE Sensex sank 617.26 points, or 1.08 percent, to 56,579.89, while the NSE Nifty dropped 218 points, or 1.27 percent, to 16,953.95.

"The Indian rupee fell on Monday as risk aversion prevailed in global markets. According to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech last week, there are growing expectations that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by 50 basis points at the upcoming FOMC meeting next week.

Significant outflows of foreign funds have also harmed the rupee, however the dramatic drop in crude oil prices has mitigated the rupee's fall. According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Friday, offloading shares worth Rs2,461.72 crore.

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