Rupee rises 31 paise to close at 89.87 against US dollar

MUMBAI — The rupee rose 31 paise to close at 89.87 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday on possible intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and a fall in global crude oil prices.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 90.20 against the US dollar and traded in the range of 89.75-90.23 before settling at 89.87 (provisional), up 31 paise from its previous close.

The rupee snapped its four-day losing streak to appreciate 12 paise to settle at 90.18 against the American currency on Tuesday.

"The rupee rose... as RBI sold dollars at 90.23 levels, signalling that one-sided movement of currencies are not what they want from the market. It is difficult to take a call on rupee's direction at the moment but 89.50-90.50 can be broadly considered as the range for January," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent higher at 98.65.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.99 per cent lower at USD 60.10 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex fell 102.20 points to settle at 84,961.14, while the Nifty declined 37.95 points to 26,140.75.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth INR 107.63 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.