Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Friday strengthened for the third consecutive sessions against the US dollar in the opening trade.
The rupee opened at 64.56 a dollar. At 9.15am, the rupee was trading at 64.55, up 0.12% from its Thursday’s close of 64.62.
The benchmark Sensex index rose 0.69% or 207.77 points to 30,509.41. So far this year, it has gained 14%.
So far this year, the rupee has gained 5.1%, while foreign investors bought $7.74 billion and $10 billion in local equity and debt markets, respectively.
The 10-year bond yield was trading at 6.663% compared to its previous close of 6.664%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Asian currencies were trading higher. Japanese yen was up 0.25%, Thai baht 0.17%, China renminbi 0.15%, China Offshore 0.10%, Singapore dollar and Malaysian ringgit were up 0.05% each. However, South Korean won was down 0.25%, Taiwan dollar 0.14%, Indonesian rupiah 0.05%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 97.294, up 0.05% from its previous close of 97.248.
Major oil producers agreed to extend output cut for an additional nine months at an Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meeting in Vienna on Thursday. That disappointed some investors, who had hoped that Opec might reduce output even further to drain a global glut that has depressed markets for almost three years, reports Reuters .