Rupee Rises 32 Paise to 73.92 Against US Dollar in Early Trade

Mumbai, Mar 18 (PTI) The Indian rupee appreciated by 32 paise to 73.92 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday tracking positive opening in domestic equities.

At the interbank foreign exchange the rupee opened at 73.98, then gained further ground and touched a high of 73.92 against the US dollar, registering a rise of 32 paise over its previous close.

On Tuesday, rupee had settled at 74.24 against the greenback.

Traders said investor sentiments improved after the Reserve Bank on Monday hinted at a rate cut at the next Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meet on April 3 and announced more liquidity enhancing measures.

The RBI announced another round of USD 2 billion dollar-rupee swap on March 23 and up to Rs 1 lakh crore of long-term repo operations as and when required.

However, there are still concerns over the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the global economy, they said. The number of deaths around the world linked to the new coronavirus has reached nearly 8,000.

Domestic bourses opened on a positive note on Wednesday with benchmark indices Sensex trading 125.19 points higher at 30,704.28 and Nifty up by 24.80 points at 8,991.85.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold equity shares worth Rs 4,044.69 crore on Tuesday, according to provisional exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.36 per cent to USD 29.12 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against the basket of six currencies was trading 0.28 per cent lower at 99.29.

The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.29 per cent in morning trade.

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