Rupee opens on flat note against US dollar

Mumbai: The rupee opened on a flat note and was trading in a narrow range against the US dollar in opening session on Monday as rising COVID-19 cases offset positive sentiments surrounding the progress on the vaccine front.

At the interbank forex market, the domestic unit opened at 74.12 against the US dollar. In early trade, the local unit also touched 74.17 against the American currency.

On Friday, the local unit had settled at 74.16 against the greenback.

"The overall sentiment prevailing globally can be best described as one of cautious optimism. With a couple of vaccines having been proven effective in trials, the question now is how much the situation gets worse before it becomes better and how much



more damage is inflicted upon the economy until then," said Abhishek Goenka, Founder and CEO, IFA Global.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was down 0.13 per cent to 92.26.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 9.30 points higher at 43,891.55, and the broader NSE Nifty rose 8.60 points to 12,867.65.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 3,860.78 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.47 per cent to USD 45.17 per barrel.