The Indian rupee opened on a flat note and fell 5 paise to 71.17 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday tracking muted opening in domestic equities.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 71.15 then fell to 71.17 against the US dollar, showing a decline of 5 paise over its previous closing.
The Indian rupee on Friday had closed at 71.12 against the US dollar.
The rupee has weakened 1.69% so far in 2019, while foreign investors bought around $13.97 billion in India equities and $3.70 billion in debt.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.32 per cent to USD 65.93 per barrel. After three weeks of gains, oil prices remained steady for most part on Monday, thanks to optimism over the United States and China coming close to an agreement to sign a trade deal to end the long standing tariff war.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net buyers in the capital markets, as they purchased shares worth Rs 338.86 crore on Friday, as per provisional data.
Domestic bourses opened on a cautious note on Monday with benchmark indices Sensex trading 22.14 points down at 41,659.40 and Nifty lower by 10.75 points at 12,261.05.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.04 per cent to 97.65.
The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.58 per cent in morning trade.
Meanwhile, on the global front, Beijing will lower import tariffs on over 850 products, including frozen pork, from January next year, the finance ministry said on Monday, which may help ease the pressure on the country's depleted pork supply.