USD/INR closed at 71.9825 against its opening at 71.71.87. The Indian rupee plunged against the US dollar in early trade today because the spread of the coronavirus outside China aggravated concerns about impact on global economic growth, which soured appetite for riskier assets. Weakness in share indices in Asia is likely to spill over to domestic equities as well, which may prompt foreign portfolio investors to pull out funds from Indian assets and hence weigh further on the rupee. Some oil marketing companies may purchase the greenback noting more than 2%-decline in prices of crude oil today, dealers said. At 0815 IST, the futures contract of Brent crude oil for April delivery traded at $56.83 per barrel, compared with $58.50 per bbl at close on Friday. This may also weigh on the rupee. However, market players are of the view that a steep fall in the rupee may be prevented by sales of the US unit by major state-owned banks on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India immediately after 0900 IST. While the RBI has been standing in the way of the rupee's appreciation beyond 71.20 a dollar for most of the year, dealers say the central bank may also not let the rupee fall significantly in alignment with other Asian currencies.