Mumbai, Aug: The Indian rupee ended flat, at 79.86, against the US dollar on Tuesday as the central bank’s intervention and foreign investor flows kept the dollar demand well filled. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee ended at 79.86, as against its 79.87 close in the previous trading session against the US dollar.
“USDINR spot closed flat, as RBI intervention and FPI flows kept the dollar demand well filled. The rupee has been an outperformer against a basket of emerging market and developed market currencies, since mid-August. The fall in oil prices and FPI flows have helped. However, upside risk remains intact as US Dollar Index and USDCNY remain in an uptrend,” said Anindya Banerjee, VP, Currency Derivatives & Interest Rate Derivatives at Kotak Securities Ltd.
The dollar index, which gauges the strength of the greenback against the basket of six major currencies, was at 108.930.
Brent crude oil prices were at $97.80 a barrel by the closing of Indian market hours.
Meanwhile, Sensex rose 257.43 points, or 0.44 percent, at 59,031.30 and Nifty ended 86.80 points, or 0.50 percent, at 17,577.50. About 2,111 shares have advanced, 1,282 shares have declined and 156 shares remained unchanged. Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Titan, and Tata Steel, were among the major gainers on the BSE. BSE Auto, BSE Metal, BSE Cons Durables, and BSE Oil & Gas rose the most.
BSE SmallCap was up 0.78 percent, BSE LargeCap was up 0.50 percent, and BSE MidCap was up 1.03 percent. “We expect a range of 79.60 and 80.30 on spot over the near term,” Banerjee added.
