Rupee rises 1 paisa to 90.17 against dollar

Mumbai: The rupee recovered from low levels and settled 1 paisa higher at 90.17 against the US dollar on Monday on weak American currency and sliding crude oil prices.

Equity market sentiment also improved after the new US envoy to India, Sergio Gor, said that both sides are actively engaged in firming up a trade deal, forex analysts said.

However, a volatile geopolitical situation kept the domestic currency under pressure, restricting its recovery, they said. Also, traders awaited cues from domestic and US macroeconomic data to be released this week.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 90.23 and strengthened to 90.13 during intra-day.

It also touched a low of 90.25 before ending the session at 90.17 against the greenback, registering a gain of 1 paisa from its previous closing level.

On Friday, the rupee depreciated by 28 paise to close at 90.18 against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.34 per cent lower at 98.55.

The latest weekly data released by the RBI on Friday showed India’s forex reserves dropped by $9.809 billion to $686.801 billion in the week to January 2. In the previous week, the reserves had jumped by $3.293 billion to $696.61 billion. PTI