Mumbai:
The Indian rupee pared its initial gains and settled on a flat note at 74.83 to the US dollar on Monday, tracking subdued equity market and cautious global cues.
At the interbank forex market, the domestic unit opened on a strong note at 74.70, but erased the gains to finally close at 74.83, unchanged from its previous closing.
During the session, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 74.67 and a low of 74.90 against the US dollar.
Forex traders said the uptick in the rupee during the day was supported by weak greenback and foreign fund inflows.
While muted domestic equities and concerns over geopolitical developments on US-China ties front weighed on investor sentiment, they added.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.53 per cent to 93.93.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex settled at 37,934.73, showing a loss of 194.17 points or 0.51 per cent, while the NSE Nifty closed 62.35 points or 0.56 per cent lower at 11,131.80.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.16 per cent to USD 43.27 per barrel.
“Rupee ended little changed on Monday as overseas funds outflow from local stock coupled with oil bids offset the impact of dollar index falling to near two years low,” said Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst (Commodity & Currency) at LKP Securities.
Trivedi further said “outflows and oil bids by late trade counteracted dollar trading at two-year low. Rupee is broadly seen in range of 74.55-75.00 in coming sessions”.
Meanwhile, the number of cases around the world linked to COVID-19 has crossed 1.62 crore and the death toll has topped 6.48 lakh.
In India, the death toll due the disease rose to 32,771 and the number of infections has crossed 14-lakh mark.
The Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 74.8672 and for rupee/euro at 86.9463. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 95.4187 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 70.40.
