Rupee nearly flat, wedged between risk-aversion and exporter dollar sales
MUMBAI, June 16 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee was little changed on Monday as the impact of risk aversion spurred by an escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict ran into dollar sales from exporters and a rise in local equities.
The rupee was at 86.0625 against the U.S. dollar as of 11:50 a.m. IST, nearly flat compared to its close at 86.08 in the previous session.
India's benchmark equity indexes, the BSE Sensex (.BSESN), opens new tab and Nifty 50 (.NSEI), opens new tab, rose about 0.7% each, turning around from two days of losses spurred by rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The conflict between Iran and Israel escalated over the weekend with both countries launching fresh attacks.
Worries over the conflict pushed up crude oil prices with Brent futures quoting at $74.69 per barrel, up over 15% over June so far.
"Rising geopolitical tensions have overshadowed positive inflation data from India, driving USD/INR above the 86.00-level. Higher energy costs could weigh on India's trade balance and stoke inflation," MUFG Bank said in a note.
India's trade data for May is due later in the day. Economists polled by Reuters expect India's merchandise trade gap to have narrowed slightly to $25 billion last month, down from $26.4 billion in April.
Traders said dollar-selling interest from exporters alongside a broad pullback in the greenback was supporting the rupee.
The dollar index was down 0.1% at 98.1 while Asian currencies were trading mixed.
The focus this week will be on a series of central bank policy decisions, including the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
The Fed is widely expected to keep rates unchanged with market participants focusing on future projections for policy rates alongside commentary from Chair Jerome Powell.
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