Rupee settles flat at 75.19 against US dollar

The rupee settled on a flat note at 75.19 against the US dollar on Monday amid high volatility in the domestic equity market.

The rupee traded in a narrow range as investors awaited retail inflation data for further cues, forex dealers said.

During the four-hour trading session, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 75.08 and a low of 75.21 against the US dollar.

The rupee closed at 75.19 against the US dollar, up by just 1 paisa over its previous close. It had settled at 75.20 against the greenback on Friday.

While weak US currency supported the local unit, foreign fund outflows and concerns over rising COVID-19 cases weighed on investor sentiment, traders said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.03 per cent to 96.62.

Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty came off the day's highs due to losses in financial stocks. The BSE Sensex settled 99.36 points, or 0.27 per cent, higher at 36,693.69 -- giving up about gains of 330 points from its intra-day peak. The NSE Nifty closed 34.65 points, or 1.15 per cent, up at 10,802.70.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market as they sold shares worth Rs 1,031 crore on Friday, according to provisional exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 1.25 per cent to USD 42.70 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the number of cases around the world linked to the disease has crossed 1.29 crore and the death toll has topped 5.69 lakh.

In India, the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 23,174 and the number of infections spiked to 8,78,254, according to the health ministry.

"Rupee consolidated in a narrow range ahead of the important inflation number that will be released today evening. Expectation is that it could grow at 5.30 per cent in June compared to growth of 5.84 per cent in the previous month," said Gaurang Somaiyaa, Forex & Bullion Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Retail inflation rose by 6.09 per cent in June, mainly on account of higher prices of food items, official data released after the market hours showed.

Somaiyaa further said that at the same time, expectation is one more stimulus package from the US is keeping the dollar weighed down against its major crosses.

"In the next couple of sessions, we expect that the USDINR (Spot) could quote in the range of 74.70 and 75.25," he added.

Meanwhile, the Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 75.2865 and for rupee/euro at 84.7992. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 94.7686 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 70.46.