Rising for the third straight day, the rupee strengthened by 14 paise to 64.34 against the US dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market today on sustained selling of the American currency by banks and exporters.

Forex dealers said besides continued selling of the greenback, dollar's weakness against other currencies overseas and a firm domestic equity market backed up the rupee.

The rupee had firmed up by 3 paise to close at 64.48 in yesterday’s trade, shrugging off weaker-than-expected GDP numbers.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex spurted 194.97 points or 0.62 per cent to hit an all-time high of 31,332.56 in early trade.