The rupee appreciated 9 paise to 74.13 against the U.S. dollar in opening trade on August 24, following a positive trend in domestic equities.
However, flight of foreign capital, a strong dollar overseas and higher crude prices restrained the rupee to gain momentum, forex dealers said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened strong at 74.12 against the dollar, then it weakened slightly to quote 74.13, a rise of 9 paise over its previous close.
On August 23, the rupee had settled at 74.22 against the U.S. dollar.
On the domestic equity market front, BSE Sensex was trading 45.14 points or 0.08% higher at 55,600.93, while the broader NSE Nifty rose 19.65 points or 0.12% to 16,516.10.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.08% to 93.04.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures surged 0.33% to $68.98 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on August 20 as they offloaded shares worth ₹1,363.36 crore, as per exchange data.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on August 23 unveiled an ambitious ₹6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that included unlocking value by involving private companies across infrastructure sectors — from passenger trains and railway stations to airports, roads and stadiums.
“A four-year National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) to monetize ₹6 trillion of brownfield infrastructure assets across sectors will definitely boost investors’ confidence by providing sufficient clarity on the number, size and type of assets that would be made available in the market,” Abhaya Agarwal, partner, Infrastructure Practice, EY India, said.