Mumbai: The rupee erased most of its initial gains to settle 4 paise higher at 74.24 (provisional) against the US dollar Thursday, as some pullback in crude oil prices and a weak greenback in the overseas market supported the local unit.
However, a massive sell-off in the domestic equity market restricted the rupee’s gain, forex dealers said.
At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened strong at 74.10 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 74.01 and a low of 74.26 during the day’s trade.
It finally ended at 74.24 a dollar against the previous close of 74.28.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.24 per cent to USD 80.09 per barrel.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading lower by 0.08 per cent at 95.75.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 372.32 points or 0.62 per cent lower at 59,636.01, while the broader NSE Nifty declined 133.85 points or 0.75 per cent to 17,764.80.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market Wednesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 344.35 crore, as per exchange data.