The rupee opened lower against the greenback on Friday, hurt by a strong US dollar after the European Central Bank postponed interest rate hikes to 2020.

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At 09:10 AM, the rupee was trading at 70.11 a dollar, down 12 paise from its Thursday’s close of 69.99. The home currency opened at 70.09 and touched a high and a low of 70.07 and 70.18 a dollar, respectively.

Globally, the greenback reached a new 2019 high against a basket of currencies and was last at 97.627.

The global growth worries overshadowed generally solid economic data on the US labor market and worker productivity. Non-farm payrolls data will be released on Friday.

In commodity markets, oil prices fell after the European Central Bank warned economic weakness would continue and as US crude output and exports chase new records, reported Reuters.

Brent crude futures were at $65.96 per barrel, down 34 cents, or 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) purchased shares worth Rs 1,130.78 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded equities to the tune of Rs 878.45 crore Wednesday, provisional data showed.

In debt markets, the yields on the 10-year government bonds were down 0.01 percent to 7.39 percent from its previous close of 7.39 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.