Mumbai, Mar 23 (PTI) The rupee breached the 94-level against the US dollar for the first time on Monday, before closing flat at 93.53, amid a correction in global crude prices.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the local unit opened at 93.84 and breached the 94-mark against the US dollar for the first time in intraday trade. However, the unit recovered all lost ground to settle unchanged at 93.53.

The rupee went past the 93-mark against the greenback on Friday after crashing 64 paise to settle at 93.53.

"The rupee hit fresh all-time lows on Friday and breached the 94-mark for the first time amid escalating geopolitical tensions in West Asia and weak domestic markets. Surge in crude oil prices and FII outflows, too, weighed on the rupee," Anuj Choudhary, Research Analyst, Mirae Asset ShareKhan, said.

"We expect the rupee to trade with a negative bias as deteriorating global sentiments and geopolitical tensions may keep the rupee under pressure. However, time-to-time intervention by the Reserve Bank may support the rupee at lower levels," he said, adding that the USD-INR spot price is expected to trade in a range of Rs 93.60-94.40.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.14 per cent higher at 99.78.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 1.11 per cent lower at USD 113.4 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, the Sensex crashed 1,836.57 points, or 2.46 per cent, to 72,696.39, while Nifty slumped 484.30 points, or 2.10 per cent, to 22,630.20.

Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 10,414.23 crore on a net basis on Monday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, India's forex reserves dropped USD 7.052 billion to USD 709.759 billion during the week ended March 13, the RBI said on Friday. PTI TRB CS BAL BAL

Rupee pressure intensifies as it breaches the 94 mark intraday amid crude, equity and global sentiment weakness. The rupee breached the 94 level against the US dollar in intraday trade for the first time before closing unchanged at 93.53. The movement reflected pressure from global market conditions, including a correction in crude prices, weakening domestic equities, foreign institutional investor outflows and broader geopolitical tensions, while the dollar index remained firm. Intermittent intervention by the Reserve Bank was expected to provide support at lower levels.