Rupee steady at 66.74 vs USD in late morning deals

Mumbai: The rupee pared its initial losses to rule stable at 66.74 against the American currency in late morning deals on bouts of dollar selling by banks and exporters amid bearish dollar overseas as well as higher domestic equities.

The rupee opened lower at 66.79 per dollar from last yesterday’s closing level of 66.74 at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

The domestic unit hovered in a range of 66.80 and 66.7350 in the morning deals before quoting stable at 66.74 at 1030 hrs.

Meanwhile, the dollar index was trading down 0.08 per cent at 95.70 against a basket of six currencies in early trade.

Overseas, the US dollar hovered near three-week lows against its major rivals in early Asian trade after soft US economic data undermined the case for an early Federal Reserve rate hike while the Australian dollar braced for the probability of a policy easing later in the day.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading higher by 109.90 points or 0.39 per cent to 28,113.02 at 1045 hrs.

PTI