Indian rupee ends flat, hemmed in by RBI intervention, oil pangs

Business Recorder reported that the Indian rupee finished Monday's session at 94.4850 per dollar, exactly where it stood on Friday. It moved within a band of roughly 10 paisa as state-run banks kept selling dollars, activity bankers believe was carried out for the Reserve Bank of India. Such steady selling has run for about two weeks, and bankers put the RBI's total at no less than $8 billion in the previous week.

Oil stayed close to 6-week highs, with Brent futures last at $96.6 per barrel as strikes on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz raised energy supply worries. Goldman Sachs said Brent could climb to $120 a barrel should attacks on shipping grow. Iran plans to disclose a fresh limited area across the Persian Gulf, along with charts of an updated sea lane through Hormuz, within days.

Analysts at ING said higher energy prices and limited market pricing of possible Federal Reserve rate increases could support the dollar in the short term. Traders assign about a 57% probability to a Fed hike this month after stronger-than-expected jobs data, with inflation figures due Friday. The dollar index slipped 0.2% to 98.9, Indian stocks lost 0.6%, and MSCI's Asian stock gauge rose nearly 2%, lifted by AI-linked shares.