The rupee rebounded by 23 paise to close at 73.64 against the U.S. dollar on Thursday following an improved risk appetite among investors triggered by positive global cues.
Investors globally took the U.S. Fed statement of starting tapering as soon as November in their stride and encouraging news on China’s Evergrande crisis also helped to clear some uncertainty on the global front, analysts said.
At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened flat at 73.85 against the greenback. During the session, it witnessed an intra-day high of 73.61 and finally settled at 73.64.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.29 % to 93.19.
"The Indian rupee erased Wednesday's loss tracking cues from regional currencies and a surge in global equities after the US Federal Reserve's meeting. Globally risk is looking fairly balanced with two large events of the week FOMC and Evergrande chaos seem to be behind," said Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.
According to Gaurang Somaiyaa, Forex and Bullion Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the rupee opened on a flat note and rose in the latter half of the session following gains in domestic equities and some retracement in the dollar against its major crosses.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve held rates unchanged and announced it will likely begin reducing its monthly bond purchases as soon as November.
The focus now will be on the preliminary U.S. manufacturing PMI number and better-than-expected number could support the dollar at lower levels. "We expect the USD/INR (Spot) is expected to trade with a positive bias and quote in the range of 73.40 and 74.05," Mr. Somaiyaa added.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.10 % to $ 76.11 per barrel.
On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 958.03 points or 1.63 % higher at 59,885.36, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 276.30 points or 1.57 % to 17,822.95.
