Rupee rises 3 paise to close at 82.58 against US dollar

New Delhi, Jul 10 (PTI) The rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled for the day higher by 3 paise at 82.58 against the US dollar on Monday, amid a muted trend in domestic equities.

Rupee is trading in a narrow range as the softness in the US dollar and sustained FII inflows were negated by risk aversion in global markets, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 82.65 against the US dollar and settled at 82.58 (provisional), up 3 paise over its previous close.

During the day, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 82.55 and a low of 82.65.

On Friday, the rupee had settled at 82.61 against the dollar.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.11 per cent to 102.38.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, declined 0.74 per cent to USD 77.89 per barrel.

“We expect the rupee to trade with a negative bias on risk aversion in global markets and rising bond yields in the major global economies and expectations of further rate hikes to tame inflation. However, some softness in the US dollar and sustained FII inflows may support rupee at lower levels,” Anuj Choudhary – Research Analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

Choudhary further noted that market participants may remain cautious ahead of India’s inflation and IIP data and US inflation and PPI data this week.

“We expect the USDINR spot to trade between 82.20 to 83.20 in the near-term,” he said.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed 63.72 points or 0.10 per cent higher at 65,344.17 points. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 24.10 points or 0.12 per cent to 19,355.90 points.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market on Friday as they purchased shares worth Rs 790.40 crore, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by USD 1.853 billion to USD 595.051 billion in the week ended June 30, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday.