Mumbai, Sep 12 (IANS): The Indian rupee ended 6 paise up, at 79.52, against the US dollar on Monday following stronger regional currencies and risk-on sentiments ahead of inflation data.

At the Interbank foreign exchange market, rupee ended at 79.52, as against 79.58 against the US dollar.

"Indian rupee appreciated for the third day in a trot following stronger regional currencies and risk-on sentiments ahead of inflation data. The market is expecting a surge in inflation to 6.9 per cent from the previous 6.7 per cent amid higher commodity prices," said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

The Dollar index, which gauges the the strength of greenback against the basket of six major currencies, was at 107.942.

"Inflation will take centre stage this week as major economies unveil CPI updates. DXY has sharply cooled off from 110.78 to below 109.00 levels with hawkish ECB lifting the euro. But DXY may find support at 108.20 levels," said Kunal Sodhani, Vice President, Global Trading Center, Shinhan Bank.

"Prices have been taking support near 79.90-80.00 mark strongly and faced resistance near 79.50, which is the 50 dma mark, if prices starts trading higher above 79.50 on rupee then further rise in rupee can be seen which can take price of rupee towards 79.00 levels," said Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst at LKP Securities.

Brent crude oil prices were at $93.78 a barrel by the closing of Indian market hours.

Meanwhile, Benchmark indices ended sharply up on Monday following firm global cues.

Sensex ends up 321.99 points, or 0.54 per cent, at 60,115.13, and Nifty closed 103.00 points, or 0.58 per cent, up at 17,936.35. As many as 2,189 shares advanced, 1,394 shares declined, and 176 shares remained unchanged.

Titan, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Infosys were major gainers on the Sensex. BSE LargeCap was 0.64 per cent up, and BSE SmallCap and MidCap closed 1 per cent and 0.89 per cent up.