TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar steadied against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, as higher oil prices offset broad-based gains for the greenback and investors awaited domestic inflation data later in the week.

Canada's consumer price index report for March, due on Wednesday, could help guide expectations for further tightening from the Bank of Canada.

Last Wednesday, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by half of a percentage point to 1%, its biggest single hike in more than two decades, to try to limit inflation.

The Federal Reserve is also expected to move aggressively to tackle inflation, which helped push the U.S. dollar higher against a basket of major currencies.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil futures settled 1.2% higher at $108.21 a barrel as outages in Libya deepened concern over tight global supply amid the Ukraine crisis.

The Canadian dollar was nearly unchanged at 1.2613 to the greenback, or 79.28 U.S. cents, after trading in a range of 1.2604 to 1.2644.

Activity in the foreign exchange market was lighter than usual with a number of major financial centers closed for Easter Monday.

Speculators have raised their bullish bets on the Canadian dollar to the highest in four weeks, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.

The loonie has gained 0.2% since the beginning of the year, trailing only the Australian dollar among G10 currencies.

Canadian government bond yields edged higher across the curve. The 10-year touched its highest level since January 2014 at 2.800% before dipping to 2.784%, up nearly 1 basis points on the day.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; editing by Barbara Lewis)