Currency market today: Rupee turns flat at 85.79 against US dollar in early trade

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The rupee turned flat at 85.79 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday as positive domestic equity markets failed to boost sentiment amid sustained outflow of foreign capital and elevated level of American currency index.

According to forex traders, the Indian currency found some support due to falling crude oil prices overseas, but concerns over higher dollar index as well as US treasury yields kept investors in cautious mode.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 85.77 and then slipped further to its previous session’s closing level of 85.79 against the American currency.

On Friday, the rupee depreciated 4 paise to close at 85.79 against the dollar.

On December 27, the local currency touched its lifetime intra-day low of 85.80 against the greenback.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.05 per cent lower at 108.74.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.18 per cent to $76.37 per barrel in futures trade.

In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 192.52 points or 0.24 per cent higher at 79,415.63 in morning trade, while Nifty was up 61.10 points or 0.25 per cent to 24,065.85.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded ₹4,227.25 crore in the capital markets on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.

The country’s forex reserves dropped by $4.112 billion to $640.279 billion during the week ended December 27, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.