mumbai the rupee thursday ended almost flat at 7259 to the us dollar on thursday after initial strong gains were erased by fagend dollar demand from importers despite government measures to stem currency volatility steady capital outflows against the backdrop of tumbling local equities ongoing global trade war concerns and surging oil prices kept forex sentiment under stress the indian unit seesawed its way through out the trade having initially opened strong reacting to overnight government decision to raise import duties on select items to check rupee slide despite the initial bounce the home unit appears to struggle as the us dollar remained broadly firm following the hawkish comments from fed president gerome powell and bullish us economic projections as expected the federal reserve hiked another quarterpercentage and pointed to a further rate hike in december however the muchawaited federal reserves rate hike failed to have much impact in emerging asia and the reaction among investors was muted the domestic currency hovered between a high of 7238 and 7278 the government on late wednesday raised import duties on 19 nonessential items as it looks to check the widening current account deficit and tackle a sharp slide in the rupee meanwhile the reserve bank of india allowed banks to dip further into statutory cash reserves in a bid to ease a liquidity squeeze afflicting the nations money markets the latest move by the central bank follows concerns engulfing the nonbanking financial companies nbfcs over tight liquidity conditions crude prices rose by nearly 1 per cent driven by the prospect of a shortfall in global supply once us sanctions against major crude exporter iran come into force in just five weeks time the brent crude futures contract was up 59 cents at 8138 a barrel in early asian trade domestic bourses came to a yet another uninspiring trading day as traders squared off positions on the expiry of september series future and options contract the domestic currency got off to a strong start at 7242 compared to wednesdays close of 7260 at the interbank foreign exchange market forex here it gained ground to hit a session high of 7238 in midmorning deals but was unbale to hold on and relinquished all those gains touching a low of 7278 in late afternoon trade due to heavy monthend dollar demand however the local unit managed to recoup all losses and finally settled the day at 7259 a gain of one paisa the financial benchmarks india private limited fbil meanwhile fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 726505 and for the euro at 850418 in the cross currency trade the rupee strengthened against the british pound to finish at 9527 per pound from 9545 and also gained ground against the euro to end at 8495 from 8533 yesterday it however fell back against the japanese yen to close at 6435 per 100 yens from 6429 on the global front the dollar traded little changed against its major rivals after the federal reserve raised interest