The rupee traded in a narrow range in Thursday morning trade as elevated crude oil prices offset the impact of positive domestic equities.
On the interbank foreign exchange exchange, the rupee opened lower at 76.37 against the US dollar and then inched up to 76.35. The local unit also touched 76.41 on the first few deals.
In the previous session, the rupee settled at 76.39 against the US dollar.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.22% to $121.33 a barrel.
The rupee is likely to remain under pressure on strength in the greenback and oil, said Sriram Iyer, senior research analyst at Reliance Securities.
“Additionally, Fed speakers remained hawkish, pushing yields higher, which could weigh on sentiment, but markets are slowly digesting the hawkish stance,” he added.
Competitors from Asia and emerging markets were weaker this Wednesday morning and could weigh on sentiment, Mr Iyer noted.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which measures the dollar’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.17% to 98.78.
On the domestic stockmarket front, the 30-piece Sensex traded 22.03 points, or 0.04%, higher to 57,706.85, while the broader NSE Nifty was up 6.75 points, or 0.04%, to 17,252.40.
Foreign institutional investors remained net buyers in the capital market on Wednesday as they bought £481.33 billion worth of shares, according to stock market data.
