The rupee opened lower against the US dollar on Thursday, as fears of an impending global recession prompted investors to stick to safe-haven assets like the Japanese yen.

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At 09:06 AM, the rupee was trading at 72.03 a dollar, down 26 paise from its Wednesday’s close of 71.77. The home currency opened at 71.91 and touched a high and a low of 71.90 and 72.03 a dollar, respectively.

Global equities struggled while gold and yen held on to gains following the latest inversion of yield curves of US Treasury bonds, which is seen as a signal of an approaching recession.

Back home, the government relaxed FDI rule for foreign single-brand retailers and also permitted foreign investment in contract manufacturing and coal mining to boost the ailing economy.

In the currency market, the dollar held gains against the safe-haven yen as ebbing recession worries soothed markets after earlier volatility.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.16 percent to 98.189.

Currencies showed little reaction after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he has no intention of intervening in the dollar right now, according to Bloomberg.

In the commodity markets, oil prices fell for the first time in three days, hurt by mounting concern about the strength of the US economy.

Brent crude was down 30 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $60.19 a barrel by 0202 GMT while US crude was down 15 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $55.63 a barrel. Oil prices rose around 1.5 percent in the previous session.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, pulling out Rs 923.94 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data.

In debt markets, the yields on the 10-year government bonds were unchanged at 6.57 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.