The rupee remained largely unchanged against the US dollar on Friday. It inched up by one paisa from its previous close to 79.87 during the first half of the session despite a strong greenback overseas and rising oil prices.
The dollar held on to its recent gains against the euro and the sterling ahead of a key address by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at an annual gathering of central bankers at the Jackson Hole symposium later in the day.
Investors expect the Fed chief to offer more clues on what the US central bank thinks of the state of the world's largest economy and what it intends to do on the interest rate front in the coming months.
The dollar index — which measures the American currency against a basket of peers — was up 0.1 percent at the last count.
Crude oil prices climbed amid signs of improving fuel demand that overweighed fears of aggressive rate hikes by the Fed.
Brent crude futures jumped 3.1 percent to $102.5 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures climbed 1.2 percent to $93.6 a barrel.
“Today is the August exchange-traded currency derivative expiry. The open interest is much lower this time, close to $2.3 billion. We should not see as much dollar buying pressure today compared to the last couple of expiry days," said Abhishek Goenka, Founder and CEO of IFA GLobal.
He expects the rupee to move within a range of 79.70-80.00 with sideways price action in the near term.
Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks made a gap-up start on the last trading day of the week tracing positive cues from global markets.
First Published: Aug 26, 2022 12:36 PM IST
