The rupee stayed weak for the third straight session, falling 31 paise to 93.75 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday, weighed down by higher crude oil prices amid uncertainties over a West Asia peace agreement. Selling pressure in domestic equity markets and withdrawal of foreign capital further pressured the Indian currency, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 93.69 and fell to 93.76 before trading at 93.75 against the greenback in early deals, registering a loss of 31 paise from the previous closing level. The rupee plunged 28 paise to settle at 93.44 against the US dollar on Tuesday, a day after losing 25 paise on Monday. The currency had gained 47 paise in the preceding two sessions.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, remained almost unchanged, down 0.01 per cent to 98.21. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.28 per cent down at USD 98.20 per barrel in futures trade.

Analysts said the crude oil prices moved above the USD 98-a-barrel level after US President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran in the absence of a peace agreement before Wednesday.

Trump has said that if the ceasefire ends without an agreement, he is prepared to resume attacking Iran. “I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with,” he told CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’. In the domestic equity markets the 30-share Sensex was trading 362.78 points or 0.46 per cent down at 78,910.55 in early trade, while the Nifty declined 90.70 points or 0.37 per cent to 24,485.90. Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded equities worth about Rs 1,918.99 crore on Tuesday, according to the exchange data.