The rupee rose 2 paise to 83.96 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday amid a weakening greenback.
However, a rise in crude oil prices and constant FII outflows capped further gains in the domestic unit, according to forex traders.
A weak start to the day in the domestic equity markets also prevented the local unit from rising further, they said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 83.97 against the US dollar, 1 paisa higher than previous day's close, before rising to 83.96. The local unit had settled at 83.98 on Thursday.
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The range for the rupee is expected to stay between 83.75 and 84.10, with the sideways trend likely to continue, forex experts said.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was down 0.11 per cent to 102.87 points.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.48 per cent to USD 77.71 per barrel in futures trade.
In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down 147.67 points to 81,463.74 in early trade, while Nifty fell 39.15 points to 24,959.30.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital markets on Thursday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 4,926.61 crore, according to exchange data.
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