Rupee rises by 7 paise to 73.38 in line with Asian peers

rupee strengned by 7 paise to close at 73.38 against US dollar on Monday, extending its gains for second day on back of firm Asian currencies and weak crude oil prices.

Forex dealers said inflows into Indian equities and firming Asian currencies against dollar lent support to local currency.

At interbank forex market, domestic unit opened at 73.43 and later rose to a high of 73.26 in day tre.

rupee pared some of its gains to finally settle day at 73.38 against greenback, registering a rise of 7 paise over its previous close of 73.45.

" Indian rupee appreciated against US dollar for second consecutive session tracking a bro uptick in regional currencies, even as risk appetite across Asia was largely muted," Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities said.

He furr ted that "flows into Indian equities lent support to domestic unit".

Chinese yuan, Singapore dollar, Thai baht and Indonesian rupiah were up at least 0.3 per cent each in afteron tre, he said.

Sugandha Sachdeva VP-Metals, Energy & Currency Research, Religare Broking said tracking decline in dollar index, long bets in domestic unit have surged in line with or Asian peers.

"As US Fed looks inclined to continue with a low interest rate regime for several years to support ecomic recovery path, dollar index has remained under pressure. On or hand, RBI also seems to have given a pause to dollar buying spree to build its forex war chest, which has provided room for local unit to edge higher," Sachdeva said.

Going ahe, rupee has strong support at 74 mark, while 72.80 remains a stiff hurdle on higher side. Indo-China border tensions will keep uncertainty alive for rupee, while trajectory of greenback shall also provide furr cues, Sachdeva ted.

Meanwhile, dollar index, which gauges greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.29 per cent to 93.19.

On domestic equity market front, 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex plunged by 811.68 points or 2.09 per cent to 38,034.14. NSE Nifty tumbled 254.40 points or 2.21 per cent to finish at 11,250.55.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in capital market as y purchased shares worth Rs 205.15 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.

Brent crude futures, global oil benchmark, fell 2.04 per cent to USD 42.27 per barrel.