Divergent trends were seen in the forex and stock markets on Thursday as the rupee sank below the 75-mark to a dollar while the benchmark Sensex ended 375 points higher.

At the inter-bank forex markets, the rupee weakened by 6 paise to close at 74.94 against the greenback as the rise in Covid-19 cases and enhanced restrictions imposed by states lead to fears that this would have an adverse impact on the economic recovery and also lead to outflows from foreign portfolio investors.

Provisional data from the bourses showed that the FPIs sold stocks worth Rs 909 crore in Thursday’s trade. So far in April, they have sold stocks of Rs 7,770 crore after being net buyers in the first three months of the calendar year.

Sriram Iyer, senior research analyst at Reliance Securities, said the rupee depreciated against the dollar as an alarming surge in coronavirus infections raised the risks to the country’s near-term growth outlook and increased concerns about foreign fund outflows. However, likely intervention from the RBI checked losses in the unit.

However, benchmark stock indices ended higher after two days of losses. The Sensex initially fell 501 points and then recovered to end 374.87 points or 0.79 per cent higher at 48080.67. The Nifty jumped 109.75 points or 0.77 per cent to finish at 14406.15.