The Indian rupee opened on a flat note and inched higher by 2 paise to 73.66 against the U.S. dollar in opening trade on September 15.
The domestic unit was trading in a narrow range as the U.S. dollar regained strength ahead of the release of U.S. inflation data. Moreover, high crude oil prices also restricted gains in the rupee, forex traders said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 73.68 against the dollar, then inched higher to 73.66, up 2 paise over its previous close.
The local unit touched an intra-day low of 73.71 in initial deals.
On September 14, the rupee had settled at 73.68 against the U.S. dollar.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.01% to 92.63.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on September 14 as they purchased shares worth ₹1,649.60 crore, as per exchange data.
On the domestic equity market front, BSE Sensex was trading 230.27 points or 0.40% higher at 58,477.36, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 65.95 points or 0.38% to 17,445.95.
Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.63% to $74.06 per barrel.
On the domestic macro-economic front, the wholesale price-based inflation rose marginally to 11.39% in August, mainly due to costlier manufactured goods.
Meanwhile, India’s exports jumped 45.76 per cent to $33.28 billion in August on account of healthy growth in segments like engineering, petroleum products, gems and jewellery and chemicals, even as the trade deficit widened to a four-month high of $13.81 billion, according to official data.
