The rupee today strengthened by hefty 138 paise to trade at 65.69 against the dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market after fresh measures by the RBI to stem the currency's slide.

The rupee had settled at 67.07 against the dollar yesterday, up by 56 paise over the previous day's close.

Traders said dollar selling by exporters and banks and fresh measures announced by new RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan to curb the rupee's slide helped domestic currency recover.

The dollar's weakness against other currencies overseass also supported the rupee's sentiment, they said.

Meanwhile, stock markets were up by over 2 per cent in early trade.

The BSE benchmark index soared by 488 points to 19,055.74, while National Stock Exchange's Nifty rose by 153 points to 5,601.90 in opening trade.

The new RBI governor yesterday announced measures, such as liberalisation of the financial market by enhancing the limits for exporters to re-book cancelled forward exchange contracts and opening a special concessional window for swapping foreign currency non-resident (FCNR) deposits and dollar funds, to support the rupee.