Indian rupee opened lower by 5 paise against the US dollar on Tuesday as rising trade tensions supported demand for safe-haven greenback.

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At 09:10 AM, the rupee was trading at 73.54 a dollar, down 9 paise from its Friday’s close of 73.45. The home currency opened at 73.49 and touched a high and a low of 73.49 and 73.59 a dollar, respectively.

The rupee ended almost flat at 73.45 against the US dollar Monday after its initial gains were erased by a late dollar demand from importers.

The currency was under pressure on Tuesday as fears of a slowdown in global economic growth weighed on investors’ appetite for risk assets.

Investors dumped riskier assets and moved to buy the greenback after Bloomberg reported that Washington is preparing to announce tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports by early December.

The dollar held firm against a basket of its key rivals. The dollar index, a gauge of the currency’s strength against six major peers, traded at 96.66, up 0.1 percent on Tuesday.

Unabated capital outflows by foreign funds continued to dampen the sentiment, according to market experts.

Foreign investors also pulled out Rs 2,230.79 crore from capital markets Monday amid the dollar hovering near 10-week high and hitting 96.66 against the basket of six global currencies.

The rupee is the worst performing emerging market currency having lost almost 15 percent since January this year. Between April and September the rupee has plummeted more than 7 percent to the dollar.

In debt markets, the yields on the 10-year government bonds rose 0.15 percent to 7.82 percent after closing at 7.81 percent on Monday. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

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