Rupee flat in early trade after opening 4 paise down

Rupee

The rupee traded flat in early trade of January 3 after opening 4 paise down due to dollar demand and foreign fund outflows from equities.

The Indian currency opened at 85.7988 to the dollar against 85.7550 close in the previous session. At 11.10 am, the local currency was trading at 85.7462 against the greenback.

“The RBI has been actively defending the rupee at the 85.80 level through dollar sales. However, global factors such as the dollar index surging past the 109 mark, combined with domestic developments like the PMI data, are adding pressure,” said Amit Pabari, MD at CR Forex Advisors.

The local currency has depreciated around 2.96 percent since2024, Bloomberg data shows.

The benchmark indices Nifty and Sensex started the day a subdued note on January 3, ending the two-day winning streak, weighed down by weakness in IT and private bank stocks. The decline followed a strong rally in the previous session, where leading indices posted their best gains in six weeks.

At 11.15 am, the Sensex was down 465.27 points or 0.57 percent at 79,502.41, and the Nifty was down 123.55 points or 0.51 percent at 24,065.10.