Rupee Nearly Flat At 81.68 Per Dollar From Previous Close Of 81.63

The rupee was nearly flat on Friday even as the dollar see-sawed trading near a three-month low and was headed for a weekly loss, driven by investors' focus on the possibility of the Federal Reserve easing the pace of its rate hikes as early as December.

Bloomberg showed the rupee was last trading at 81.6775 per dollar, compared to its previous close of 81.6275. 

PTI reported that the domestic currency rose 3 paise to 81.67 against the US dollar in early trade.

"The market reaction has been pretty straightforward: risk-on, dollar-off. The US Fed minutes were set to be the turning point for the dollar, and not surprised to see another fall in the USD in a situation where markets are now changing away from long-dollar positioning," said Amit Pabari, Managing Director of CR Forex Advisors.

"On the domestic front, USDINR continued to trade in a tight range of 81.60-81.90 levels for the past few sessions. It is observed that the RBI is suspected to intervene around 81.90 levels, which shows that they want to keep USDINR stable between 80.50-82 levels for now," he added.

Trading was sluggish overnight due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, but most currencies extended their gains versus a weaker dollar before reversing course slightly in early Asian trade.

A "substantial majority" of US policymakers agreed that slowing the rate of interest rate hikes would "likely soon be appropriate," according to the minutes from the Fed's November meeting, published earlier this week. Those comments sent the dollar plummeting.

The dollar index was at 105.94 against a basket of currencies, approaching its three-month low of 105.30 reached last week. It was on track to lose close to 1 per cent for the week.

"We've still got the third successive day of positive risk sentiment...I think that is keeping the US dollar subdued pretty much across the board," Ray Attrill, Head of FX Strategy at National Australia Bank, told Reuters.