Rupee rises 15 paise against $

Mumbai: The Indian rupee continued its winning run for the third straight session on Monday, adding another 15 paise to close at 72.37 against the US dollar as some stability in crude oil prices and sustained foreign fund inflows kept investor sentiment upbeat.

At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 72.47 against the greenback and gained further to touch an intra-day high of 72.34. It finally ended at 72.37 against the American currency, registering a rise of 15 paise over its previous close. In the previous session, the rupee had settled at 72.52 against the American currency.

"Indian rupee gains by the most in almost a week on continued foreign inflows through primary market. The rupee is likely to be well supported by continued equity inflows offsetting the strength of the dollar and risk aversion sentiments," Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities, said. "Rupee has gained 1.5 per cent month to date, the only Asian currency to have advanced in a month following strong foreign fund inflows," he added.

In the near term, currency movements will be influenced to great extent by scheduled statements by central bankers, US Treasury yield movement and news on continued lockdown in countries across Europe, Parmar noted. "Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have bought close to a net $2.5 billion worth of Indian equities so far this month. FPIs bought a net $179.40 million as of March 18, 2021. For the month of March, FPIs were net buyers of a total of $2.454 billion," according to Reliance Securities.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.46 per cent to $64.23 per barrel. Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors turned net sellers in the capital market on Monday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 786.98 crore, as per exchange data. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.05 per cent to 91.97. On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex slipped 86.95 points or 0.17 per cent to close at 49,771.29, while the broader NSE Nifty ended lower by 7.60 points or 0.05 per cent at 14,736.40.