After touching one-and a-half-week high, the rupee ended almost flat at 60.11 against the dollar on Thursday on the back of month-end dollar demand from importers and possible intervention by the Reserve Bank of India.
The unit opened higher at 60.03 against the close of 60.10 on Wednesday on the back of stable inflows into equity markets.
The rupee strengthened to 59.92 per dollar after which it declined to 60.13 on month-end dollar demand from oil importers. The RBI too is likely to have intervened asking banks to buy dollars to limit the gains in the rupee.
Intra-day, the rupee moved in the 21 paise range at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market.
Call rates, Bonds end flat
The inter-bank call money rate, the rate at which banks borrow short-term funds from one another to tide over liquidity mismatches, ended flat at 9 per cent.
Yield on the benchmark 8.83 per cent government bond maturing in 2023 ended almost flat at 8.65 per cent from Wednesday’s close of 8.66 per cent.
The prices on the security ended higher at Rs 101.12 from Rs 101.04. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.