On Wednesday morning around 10 am, the Indian rupee was trading at 68.17 against the dollar which is 13 paise lower per dollar compared to Tuesday's 68.04. It hit a new 16-month low of 68.29 in early morning trade.

Yesterday, the domestic currency had shown some improvement despite the rise in fuel prices and fund outflows from Indian markets. It was suspected to be from the fresh selling of dollar by banks and exporters. However, fresh tensions in geopolitical relations of the US with North Korea may have impacted the optimism in Asian markets.

In opening trade, the markets declined. Japan's Topix index was down by 0.3 percent. Hang Seng index and Kospi index also experienced a drop of 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent respectively.

As for crude oil, WTI (West Texas Intermediate) was at $71.99 per barrel, while Brent was at $79.26 per barrel. State-owned oil marketers in India also hiked fuel prices for the tenth day in a row. Petrol price in Delhi is at Rs 77.17 per litre, Rs 79.83 per litre in Kolkata, Rs 84.99 per litre in Mumbai and Rs 80.11 per litre in Chennai.

Diesel, on the other hand, was revised to Rs 68.34 per litre in Delhi, Rs 70.89 per litre in Kolkata, Rs 72.76 per litre in Mumbai and Rs 72.14 per litre in Chennai.

Meanwhile, the US dollar strengthened ahead of the country's Federal Reserve's release of minutes from its last policy meet. Further tightening of monetary policies is expected.