Mumbai, Aug 4 (IANS): The rupee has depreciated 30 paise against the US dollar on Thursday as sentiments of investors dampened due to weak macroeconomic data and tensions between US-China.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 79.21 and then fell to 79.46 against the US dollar. The rupee ended at 79.16 against the dollar on Wednesday.

Market participants said that most traders remained cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy due on Friday.

"Rupee dragged lower below 79.75 as volatility increased in the market on the back of geopolitical issues which may arise between US-China conflict over Taiwan. More of a panic sentiment rally was witnessed across currencies especially Chinese neighbouring countries due to geographical locations," said Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst at LKP Securities.

India's exports dipped marginally for the first time in June and the trade deficit has recorded tripled to $31 billion on 70 per cent rise in crude oil prices. By the end of Indian market hours, Brent crude oil prices were trading at $97.15 a barrel.

On the domestic equity front, Sensex fell just over 50 points or 0.09 per cent to 58,298.80, and Nifty fell mere 6.15 points or 0.04 per cent to 17,382.00.

"The new broad range for USD INR has now turned to 78.20-80.20 levels and may consolidate within these levels for sometime now," said Kunal Sodhani, Vice President, Global Trading Centre, Shinhan Bank.