Rupee rises for 5th day, inches up 3 paise to 73.90 against US dollar

Strengthening for the fifth straight session, the rupee climbed 3 paise to close at 73.90 against the US dollar on Thursday, tracking a weak greenback overseas.

Weak macroeconomic data and elevated crude oil prices restricted the upward bias for the local unit, forex traders said.

At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened at 73.91 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 73.84 and a low of 73.97. It finally settled at 73.90, a rise of 3 paise over its previous close.

In the previous session, the rupee had settled almost flat at 73.93 against the US dollar.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 85.26 points or 0.14 per cent higher at 61,235.30, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 45.45 points or 0.25 per cent to 18,257.80.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.12 per cent to 94.80.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.26 per cent higher at USD 84.89 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,001.57 crore, as per stock exchange data.

On the domestic macroeconomic front, industrial production remained muted for the third straight month in November 2021, while retail inflation rose to a six-month high of 5.59 per cent in December.

"The Indian Rupee appreciated marginally against the dollar on Thursday and ended over 3-month high tracking a broad dollar decline," said Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities.

However, expectations that the country's central bank is unlikely to allow the local unit to appreciate from current levels capped the gains.

Meanwhile, the Asian peers were broadly stronger against the dollar index tracking broad weakness in the greenback over the last two trading sessions, while stronger domestic equities also aided sentiments.

The US dollar was flat to marginally lower in European trade after US inflation proved weaker-than-feared in December, prompting investors to cut long positions in the currency, he added.

According to Jateen Trivedi, Senior Research Analyst at LKP Securities, "Rupee can be seen in the range of 73.75 and 74.25 as it keeps taking resistance near 73.75 and support near 74.25.