Mumbai: The rupee recovered most of its initial losses and settled 4 paise down at 74.43 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday, tracking a positive trend in domestic equities and easing crude oil prices.
At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 74.48 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 74.38 and a low of 74.57.
It finally ended at 74.43 against the American currency, registering a fall of just 4 paise over its previous close of 74.39.
“Indian rupee recovered opening loss and ended on a flat note after a short-covering bounce in domestic equities. Strength in Asian currencies, lower crude oil price and steady dollar index supported the local unit,” Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities, said.
Parmar further added that spot USD/INR is expected to consolidate in a narrow range of 74 to 74.70 amid mixed global and domestic signals.
“There were foreign fund outflows from the secondary market, dollar index heading higher, and at the same time, we could see the central bank selling dollars for month-end dollar demands,” he said.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 198.44 points or 0.34 per cent higher at 58,664.33, while the broader NSE Nifty rose 86.80 points or 0.5 per cent to 17,503.35.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.97 per cent to USD 78.93 per barrel.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, declined 0.14 to 96.41.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,438.76 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.