Rupee closed at 69.59 against its open at 69.67. USD/INR closed lower tracking the weakness in greenback after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell mentioned that US interest rates were just below neutral amid surge in investors risk appetite on further fall in crude oil prices. Higher risk appetite and dollar weakness will support the rupee. Asian stocks traded higher as investors waited for a highly-anticipated meeting between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Argentina.
The greenback lost grounds against its major peers as investors turned cautious regarding aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate hikes after Chair Powell expressed dovish stance amid dismal US economic data. The minutes of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting held earlier this month seemed to reinforce expectations for another quarter-point increase in interest rates next month.The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting, released Thursday said almost all participants agreed another increase in rates was "likely to be warranted fairly soon."
Oil prices edge up on expected OPEC output cuts, but swelling U.S. supply caps gains.
Nifty closed higher at 10,876.75, while the Sensex ended up at 36,194.30.