Rupee seen steady on inflows

The rupee should open little changed on Monday and move in a narrow band as dollar inflows from commercial borrowings by companies are expected to offset import demand.

Dealers expect the rupee to open around 45.60/65 per dollar and move in 45.55-45.75 band. It had closed little changed at 45.595/605 on Friday. Foreign institutional investors bought Indian shares worth USD 145.04 million on Thursday, after being net sellers in the previous five sessions. They have pulled out USD 1.35 billion this year until February 3, on concerns over high inflation. The dollar held its ground against a basket of major currencies early in Asia on Monday, with markets growing wary of a reversal in a bearish trend after the greenback bounced off multi-month lows versus the euro late last week. At 0253 GMT, the MSCI index of Asian shares ex-Japan was up 0.25%, while Japan's Nikkei was up 0.7%. The Nifty India stock futures traded in Singapore were little changed. The dollar index, a measure of the greenback's performance against six major currencies, was down 0.19 percent at 77.893 points, but well off a three-month low of 76.881 plumbed on Wednesday.