Rupee ends flat at 74.19 per US dollar

Mumbai: The rupee inched up 1 paisa to settle at 74.19 against the US dollar on Monday amid firm crude oil prices and a lacklustre trend in domestic equities.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 74.24 per dollar as against its previous close of 74.20. It hovered in a range of 74.18 to 74.27 during the day, before ending at 74.19 against the greenback. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.10 per cent to 91.76. On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 189.45 points or 0.36 per cent lower at 52,735.59, while the broader NSE Nifty fell 45.65 points or 0.29 per cent to 15,814.70. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 0.07 per cent to USD 76.23 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Friday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 678.84 crore, as per exchange data. "Rupee again traded in a small range as lack of movements in dollar index and crude prices kept the range between 74.10-74.25. Crude price moved on back of OPEC+ meetings scheduled this week. "The range for rupee can be between 73.95-74.30 in coming sessions," said Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst at LKP Securities. According to Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities, the Indian rupee ended flat against the US currency amid lack of any fresh regional or global triggers.