Mumbai

Therupee stayed steady for the fifth straight session and settled with a gain of 9 paise at 95.67 against the US dollar on Thursday, taking cues from positive domestic equity markets and inflows of foreign capital. According to forex traders, a softening dollar also supported the local currency, but its upward move was restricted due to volatile crude oil prices, triggered by a fresh escalation of the war in West Asia. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 95.59 and traded in the range of 95.56 to 95.75 against the greenback. The Indian unit ended the session at 95.67 against the US dol-lar, registering a gain of 9 paise from its previous closing level. The rupee gained 6 paise to set-tle at 95.76 against the US dollar on Wednesday, after rising 97 paise in four back-to-back ses-sions since closing at 96.73 versus US dollar on July 23.

“Traders may take cues from advance GDP, core PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures) price index and weekly unemployment claims data from the US. USD-INR spot price is ex-pected to move in a range of Rs 95.40 to Rs 96,” Anuj Choudhary, Research Analyst, Mirae Asset ShareKhan, said. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six cur-rencies, was trading down 0.05 per cent at 101.67.

Analysts said crude prices reclaimed $90-per-barrel levels amid renewed fear of disruptions in global energy supplies, as fresh flare-ups between the US and Iran, after a brief calm, shattered hopes of an end to the five-month conflict in West Asia.

The US military said on Thursday that they have struck “dozens” of targets belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps in “a heavy wave of strikes against Iran” conducted in response to an earlier Iranian missile attack on a US base in Jordan.