The rupee strengthened 73 paise and crossed the crucial 73-mark against the US dollar on Tuesday supported by a weak American currency and positive domestic equities.
Forex traders said the domestic unit gathered momentum after the Reserve Bank of India announced various steps to ease pressure on liquidity.
At the interbank forex market, the domestic unit opened at 73.18 against the US dollar, gained further ground during the trading session and finally settled for the day at 72.87 against the greenback, registering a surge of 73 paise over its previous close of 73.60.
During the session, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 72.75 and a low of 73.19 against the American currency.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.25 per cent lower at 91.91.
The Reserve Bank on Monday announced a host of steps, including term repo operations totalling Rs 1 lakh crore in mid-September to ease pressure on the liquidity and maintain congenial financial conditions with a view to ensuring sustainable recovery of economic growth.
Moreover, financial sector regulators, including the RBI and Sebi, on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to continue co-coordinating on various initiatives to strengthen the financial sector.
Meanwhile, on the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 355.07 points higher at 38,983.36, and the broader NSE Nifty advanced 94.50 points to 11,482.00.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,395.49 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.15 per cent to USD 45.80 per barrel
