Rupee rises 5 paise to settle at 89.63 against US dollar

Mumbai, Dec 23 (PTI) The rupee rose 5 paise to settle at 89.63 against the US dollar on Tuesday on the back of a weaker greenback.

However, a rise in global crude oil prices, coupled with foreign capital outflows, prevented sharper gains in the local unit, according to forex traders.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 89.67 and traded in the range of 89.58-89.85 before settling at 89.63 against the greenback, up 5 paise from its previous close.

The rupee on Monday pared initial gains to settle slightly down by 1 paisa at 89.68 against the US dollar.

Anuj Choudhary, Research Analyst, Mirae Asset ShareKhan, said the rupee gained on Tuesday on a weak US dollar index.

"However, a surge in crude oil prices capped sharp gains. We expect the rupee to trade with a positive bias on overall weakness in the US dollar and a bounce back in the domestic equities," Choudhary said, adding that the delay in the trade deal between India and the US is expected to weigh on the rupee at higher levels.

"USD-INR spot price is expected to trade in a range of Rs 89.30-89.90," he said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.34 per cent lower at 97.95.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.18 per cent higher at USD 62.18 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, Sensex declined 42.64 points to settle at 85,524.84, while the Nifty was marginally up by 4.75 points to 26,177.15.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 1,794.80 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data. PTI TRB HVA