BENGALURU, June 19 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee is expected to open little changed on Monday, though weakness in Asian counterparts will likely pressure the domestic currency.

Non-deliverable forwards indicate the rupee will open at around 81.93 to 81.96 to the U.S. dollar, compared with its spot close of 81.93 in the previous session.

On Friday, the rupee hit an over five-week high on persistent dollar inflows and closed out its best week against the U.S. currency since early March.

Asian currencies were trading between 0.1%-0.9% lower early on Monday. The dollar index was little changed against major peers after falling 1.2% the previous week, the most in five months.

"Given the lack of significant events in the coming couple of weeks, the Indian rupee is at an advantage in the short-term and any dip in USD/INR remains a good opportunity," said Srinivas Puni, managing director at QuantArt Market Solutions.

After digesting several central bank rate decisions last week, investors will watch out for a host of U.S. Federal Reserve speakers this week, including Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimonies on Wednesday and Thursday.

Investors are currently pricing in a 69% probability of a quarter-basis-point hike in July, although bets of further rate hikes have ebbed slightly after mixed U.S. data last week.

Meanwhile, U.S. consumers' near-term inflation expectations dropped to a more than two-year low in June, while the five-year outlook improved slightly, according to a survey that also showed sentiment perking up.

The U.S. markets are closed for a holiday on Monday.

KEY INDICATORS:

** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at 82.04; onshore one-month forward premium at 7.5 paisa

** USD/INR NSE June futures settled on Friday at 81.9550

** USD/INR June forward premium at 1.5 paisa

** Dollar index down at 102.340

** Brent crude futures down 1.5% at $75.4 per barrel

** SGX Nifty nearest-month futures were flat at 18,907

** Foreign investors bought a net $399.3 million worth of Indian shares on June 15 - NSDL data

** Foreign investors sold a net $51.3 million worth of Indian bonds on June 15 - NSDL data (Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)