Rupee settles flat at 78.94 against U.S. dollar

The rupee paired its early losses and settled on a flat note at 78.94 (provisional) against the United States dollar on Monday.

At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 78.97 against the greenback and fell to an intra-day low of 79.06. It finally settled at 78.94, unchanged from its previous close.

“Forex markets witnessed relatively less movement than usual as U.S. markets remained closed on account of Independence Day. Nevertheless, the rupee outperformed regional currencies today after last week’s worst performance on the back of capital outflows and worry over the twin deficit,” said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 326.84 points or 0.62% higher at 53,234.77, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 83.30 points or 0.53% to 15,835.35.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was down 0.13% at 104.99.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.26% to $111.34 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on Friday as they offloaded shares worth ₹2,324.74 crore, as per exchange data.

Meanwhile, the country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $2.734 billion to $593.323 billion for the week ended June 24 on the back of a surge in the core currency assets, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday.