Rupee rises 25 paise to 74 against USD in early trade

The Indian rupee appreciated by 25 paise to 74 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday tracking positive opening in domestic equities and the Reserve Bank of India's liquidity enhancing measures.

Forex traders said investor sentiments recovered after the Reserve Bank on Monday hinted at a rate cut at the next Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meet on April 3 and announced more liquidity enhancing measures.

The RBI announced another round of USD 2 billion dollar-rupee swap on March 23 and up to Rs 1 lakh crore of long-term repo operations as and when required.

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At the interbank foreign exchange the rupee opened at 74.16, then gained further ground and touched a high of 74.00 against the US dollar, registering a rise of 25 paise over its previous close.

On Monday, rupee had settled at 74.25 against the greenback.

Meanwhile, investor sentiment remained fragile amid concerns over the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the global economy, forex traders said.

The number of deaths around the world linked to the new coronavirus has topped 7,000.

Domestic bourses opened on a positive note on Tuesday with benchmark indices Sensex trading 407.89 points higher at 31,797.96 and Nifty up by 118.45 points at 9,315.85.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold equity shares worth Rs 3,809.93 crore on Monday, according to provisional exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.90 per cent to USD 30.62 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against the basket of six currencies was trading 0.03 per cent lower at 98.04.

The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.23 per cent in morning trade.