Indian rupee has erased initial gains and ended flat at 75.64 per dollar against the US dollar on Friday as concerns about rising COVID-19 cases weighed on investor sentiment.
Forex traders said risk appetite has waned amid spike in fresh coronavirus infections globally
It opened higher by 14 paise at 75.52 per dollar against previous close of 75.66. During the four-hour trading session, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 75.43 and a low of 75.65 against the US dollar.
At 14:11 IST, the Sensex was up 198.01 points or 0.57% at 35040.11, and the Nifty was up 59 points or 0.57% at 10347.90.
“Despite rising coronavirus concerns, the global equity market is trading higher reacting to new stimulus packages and unconventional easing. But, there is a lot of uncertainty over the spike in COVID-19 cases,” said Rahul Gupta, Head of Research- Currency, Emkay Global Financial Services.
Gupta further said that “the market is trying to figure out the impact of this on consumer activity in coming months, and it is not clear now because we don’t know how bad this spike is going to get”.
The number of cases around the world linked to the disease has crossed 96.12 lakh and the death toll has topped 4.89 lakh.
Meanwhile, in India, the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 15,301 and the number of infections rose to 4,90,401, according to the health ministry.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.93 per cent to USD 41.43 per barrel.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell by 0.09 per cent to 97.34.