Mumbai, May 13 (PTI) The rupee touched its lowest-ever intraday level of 95.80 against the US dollar, weakening for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday due to elevated crude oil prices and fear of a prolonged global trade disruption amid the West Asia crisis.

According to forex analysts, in the backdrop of surging crude oil prices, the government's move to raise import duties on gold and silver may not be enough to ease the overall demand for the safe-haven greenback.

Effective May 13, the government raised import tariffs on gold and silver to 15 per cent from 6 per cent to curb overseas purchases of the metals and ease pressure on the country’s forex reserves.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee logged a fall of 21 paise during the session, and it hit the day's high of 95.51 against the greenback, even though it opened the session at 95.52, 16 paise higher than its previous day's closing level.

In the past three sessions, the Indian currency has lost 96 paise since May 7, when it ended at 94.22 against the US dollar.

Anuj Choudhary, Research analyst at Mirae Asset ShareKhan, said the rupee hit a fresh record low on rising crude oil prices and a surge in inflation.

"Stalemate between the US and Iran on peace talks has led to risk aversion in global markets. A strong dollar and FII outflows too pressurised the rupee," he said and projected the USD-INR spot price to trade "in a range of Rs 95.45 to Rs 96.15".

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 98.46, up 0.29 per cent.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading lower by 0.22 per cent at USD 107.73 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex was trading 79.50 points higher at 74,638.74, while the Nifty was up 39.50 points to 23,419.05.

Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded equities worth Rs 1,959.39 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

On the domestic macroeconomic front, retail inflation inched up to 3.48 per cent in April mainly due to higher prices of gold and silver jewellery as well as some kitchen items, according to government data released on Tuesday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation, with base year 2024, was 3.40 per cent in March, 3.21 per cent in February, and 2.74 per cent in January. PTI HVA BAL BAL