Rupee recovers from record low, inches higher by 9 paise against US dollar in early trade

Mumbai: Recovering from its record low, the rupee inched higher by 9 paise to 78.23 against the US dollar in early morning trade on Thursday.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 78.26 against the American dollar, then inched higher to quote at 78.23, registering a rise of 9 paise from the previous close.

On Wednesday, the rupee declined by 19 paise to settle at an all-time low of 78.32 against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.05 per cent lower at 104.14.

“The Indian Rupee opened stronger against the dollar this Thursday morning, tracking a further pullback in crude oil prices,” said Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 2.17 per cent to USD 109.32 per barrel.

Meanwhile, as per minutes of the latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting released on Wednesday, all the six members of the MPC, including the RBI Governor, expressed concern over continued high inflation and stressed that the central bank’s endeavour would be to bring down the rate of price rise within the target range.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex was trading 305.1 points or 0.59 per cent higher at 52,127.63, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 95.00 points or 0.62 per cent to 15,508.30.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,920.61 crore, as per stock exchange data.