Rupee trades in narrow range in morning trade against US dollar

Indian rupee was trading in a narrow range in morning trade on Friday amid uncertainties over the global economic recovery in the wake of the emergence of Omicron.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 74.98 against the dollar. It touched an early high of 74.96 and a low of 75.01 in initial deals.

The rupee on Thursday settled at 75.02 against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 96.16.

The rupee has been under pressure over the last few trading sessions as the detection of the new coronavirus variant Omicron re-ignited growth concerns and hurt risk appetite.

Besides, unabated foreign fund outflows weighed on investor sentiments, traders said.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Thursday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 909.71 crore, as per exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures advanced 1.44 per cent to USD 70.67 per barrel.

On the domestic equity market front, BSE Sensex was trading 98.53 points or 0.17 per cent lower at 58,362.76 while the broader NSE Nifty declined 25.55 points or 0.15 per cent to 17,376.10.