The Indian rupee continued its downward trajectory on Thursday, falling another 76 paise to close below the 74 per U.S. dollar level, tracking a strong dollar overseas trend.

At the interbank forex market, the rupee unit opened weak at 73.65 against the American currency, then lost further ground and finally closed at 74.08, showing a fall of 76 paise over its previous close of Rs  73.32.

The local unit witnessed an intra-day high of 73.57 and a low of 74.08 against the greenback. The domestic currency has lost 128 paise in the eight consecutive trading sessions to Thursday. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.6 percent to 91.67.

On the domestic macroeconomic front, the CPI inflation accelerated by 6.3 percent in May 2021, compared to 4.23 percent in April 2021. Inflation breached the Reserve bank of India's target range of 2-6 percent.

On the domestic share market, the BSE Sensex ended 178.65 points or 0.34 percent lower at 52,323.33, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 76.15 points or 0.48 percent to 15,691.40.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.12 percent to USD74.48 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs870.29 crore, as per exchange data.

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