Mumbai, Sep 14 (IANS): The Indian rupee ended down 29 paise down, at 79.44, against the US dollar on Wednesday.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee ended at 79.44, against 79.15 in the previous trading session, against US dollar.

Anindya Banerjee, VP, Currency Derivatives & Interest Rate Derivatives at Kotak Securities Ltd, attributed the dip to the strong rally in US Dollar Index and sell-off in equities.

"However, RBI intervention and FPI flows may have capped the advance beyond 79.60. The sharp drop in the forward premium could be a sign of RBI selling in forwards. Post US CPI, odds of a 100 bps hike next week has increased. These odds can keep USDINR supported till Fed meeting," he said

Dollar index, which gauges the the strength of greenback against the basket of six major currencies, was at 109.243.

"We expect a range of 79.20 and 79.80 on spot," Banerjee added.

Brent crude oil prices were at $92.74 a barrel by the closing of Indian market hours.

Meanwhile, Sensex ended 224.11 points, or 0.37 per cent, down at 60,346.97, and Nifty closed 66.30 points, or 0.37 per cent, down at 18,003.75. A total of 1,176 shares declined, 1,692 shares advanced and 143 remained unchanged.

Infosys, TCS, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies remained major losers on the Sensex. BSE LargeCap was down 0.31 per cent, BSE MidCap was down 0.10 per cent, and BSE SmallCap was lower 0.01 per cent.