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The rupee surged 12 paise to 72.87 against the US dollar in opening trade on Monday following weakness in the greenback overseas and a positive trend in the domestic equities. Besides, lower crude prices also supported the domestic unit, dealers said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened strong at 72.85 against the dollar and lost some ground to touch 72.87 in early deals, a rise of 12 paise over its previous close.
On Friday, the rupee had settled at 72.99 against the US dollar. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.03 percent to 90.11. Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.54 percent to USD 71.50 per barrel.
On the domestic equity market front, BSE Sensex was trading 90.43 points or 0.17 percent higher at 52,190.48, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 48.40 points or 0.31 percent to 15,718.65. Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Friday as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,499.37 crore, as per exchange data.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday decided to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 percent but maintained an accommodative stance amid the second COVID wave. India reported 1,00,636 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest in 61 days, taking the infection tally to 2,89,09,975, while the number of active cases dropped to 14,01,609, according to the Union Health Ministry's data updated on Monday.
