Mumbai, July 17 - The Indian rupee recovered all of its overnight losses and appreciated by 20 paise to end at 55.11 against the Greenback on fresh dollar selling by exporters on the back of weak dollar overseas amid sustained capital inflows.

The dollar index, an indicator of a basket of six major currencies, was down by 0.08 pct after lacklustre US retail sales data which raised hopes for the Federal Chairman to bring up monetary easing steps at his Senate testimony later in the day.

As a result, exporters and some banks sold dollars on hopes of further fall in doller value overseas, helping the rupee recovery.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened sharply higher at 54.89 a dollar from its previous close of 55.31 and immediately touched a high of 54.80 on early rise in local equities amid heavy dollar selling by exporters.

However, it turned negative in line with stocks and sustained capital inflows amid weakness in dollar overseas and touched a low of 55.22 before concluding at 55.11, still showing a rise of 0.36 pct. Yesterday, it had fell by 16 paise or 0.29 pct.

The Indian benchmark sensex, which was up by about 133 points in morning deals, fell back and closed nearly flat.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their buying and they injected USD 68.21 million last Friday, taking a total to over USD 1.39 billion in the current month till July 13. PTI