Mumbai:
The Indian rupee surrendered most of its early gains and settled for the day 9 paise higher at 68.94 against the US dollar on Monday as investor sentiments were revived by US-China trade truce.
At the interbank foreign exchange (forex), the domestic currency opened at 68.96 a dollar and gained further strength to touch a high of 68.82 during the day.
The domestic currency, however, could not hold on to the gains and fell to 69.09. The rupee finally settled at 68.94 a dollar, higher by 9 paise over its previous close.
The Indian unit had settled at 69.03 against the US dollar Friday.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.27 per cent to 96.39.
Forex traders said the rupee appreciated in the morning trade as Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump at the G20 summit agreed to re-launch the stalled negotiations to end the trade war.
“Indian rupee started the day on positive note amid record foreign-exchange reserves, narrowed current-account deficit and start of US-China Trade talks. But rupee gave away intra-day gains as traders rushed for dollar buying amid higher crude oil prices,” said V K Sharma, Head-PCG & Capital Market Strategy, HDFC securities.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 2.33 per cent to USD 1.51 per barrel ahead of the OPEC+ meeting.
A meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers, an alliance known as OPEC+, is scheduled to be held on Monday and Tuesday to discuss supply cuts.
Amid soaring US production and weak global economy, OPEC+ has been reducing oil output to prevent prices from sliding.
Meanwhile, the 10-year government bond yield was at 6.88 per cent on Monday.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, pulling out Rs 513.19 crore Friday, provisional data showed.
The 30-share BSE Sensex settled 291.86 points, or 0.74 per cent, higher at 39,686.50. The broader NSE Nifty too jumped 76.75 points, or 0.65 per cent, to end at 11,865.60.
Meanwhile, Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 68.9180 and for rupee/euro at 78.3579. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 87.3476 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 63.97.
