Rupee surges 20 paise against US dollar

Mumbai: The Indian rupee jumped 20 paise to trade at 72.71 against the US dollar in opening deals on Friday, taking cues from positive equity markets.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the Indian unit opened at 72.66 but parted with some gains as trade progressed and quoted higher by 20 paise at 72.71 to the dollar.

In the previous session on Wednesday, the domestic currency had edged marginally higher by 2 paise to end at 72.91 a dollar.

Forex market was closed on Thursday on account of ‘Mahashivratri’.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges



the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.16 per cent to 91.56.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.13 per cent to USD 69.53 per barrel.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex was higher by 392.86 points or 0.77 per cent at 51,672.81 in early trade, while the broader NSE Nifty was up 118.40 points or 0.78 per cent at 15,293.20.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 15.69 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.