Mumbai,  The rupee ended 7 paise higher at 79.88 against the US dollar on Thursday.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, rupee ended at 79.88 against the US dollar, as against 79.81 on the previous trading session.

"USDINR spot closed 7 paise higher at 79.88 due to hawkish comments from a Fed member. Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic told WSJ that if data turn out to be strong till the September meeting, 75-bps hike is on the table. These comments did rattle a few nerves ahead of US Fed chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday," said Anindya Banerjee, VP, Currency Derivatives & Interest Rate Derivatives, Kotak Securities Ltd.

"Over the near term, we expect USDINR to trade with an upward bias within a range of 79.60 to 80.30 on spot," Banerjee added.

The dollar index, which gauges the the strength of greenback against the basket of six major currencies, was at 108.325. Brent crude oil price was at $101.90 a barrel by the closing of Indian market hours.

The Sensex ended 310.71 points or 0.53 per cent down at 58,774.72 on Thursday, while Nifty ended 82.50 points or 0.47 per cent down at 17,522.45.

About 1,905 shares have advanced, 1,517 declined while 130 shares remained unchanged on Thursday.