Mumbai, Sep 15 (IANS): The Indian rupee ended 26 paise down, at 79.70, against the US dollar on Thursday due to the weaker Chinese yuan and foreign fund selling amid risk-averse sentiments.

At the Interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee ended at 79.70 against 79.44 in the previous trading session against the US dollar.

"Indian rupee drifted further lower following weaker Chinese Yuan and foreign fund selling amid risk-averse sentiments. The dollar has been stabilising versus the major currencies but strengthening against the Asian currencies. The Fed has remained quite hawkish in recent commentaries which are offering a good floor to the dollar," said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

Dollar index, which gauges the the strength of greenback against the basket of six major currencies, was at 109.523.

"In the near term, spot USDINR is likely to trade in the range of 79.90 to 79.30," Parmar added.

Brent crude oil prices were at $93.25 a barrel by the closing of Indian market hours.

Meanwhile, Benchmark indices ended dharply down on Wednesday with Sensex closing over 400 points down and Nifty over 100 points lower due to sell-off in IT and Pharma stocks.

At close, Sensex ended 412.96 points, or 0.68 per cent, at 59,934.01, and Nifty closed 126.35 points, or 0.70 per cent, at 17,877.40.

Nifty IT index closed 1.43 per cent down and BSE IT index ended 1.63 per cent lower, whereas Nifty Pharma and BSE Cons Durables closed 1.29 per cent and 0.76 per cent, respectively, down.