After two straight days of fall, the rupee was trading strong at 67.51 following fresh selling of the US currency by banks and exporters amid positive economic data.
Rupee sentiment was buoyed as retail inflation fell to a two-year low of 3.63 per cent in November after the Centre’s demonetisation drive dented consumer spending on various food items, including vegetables.
This is the lowest level since November 2014 when the retail inflation came in at 3.23 per cent.
Forex dealers said dollar’s weakness against some currencies overseas supported the local unit.
The domestic unit opened up by 2 paise at 67.52 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market today. It hovered in a range of 67.58 and 67.44 before quoting at 67.51, up 3 paise at 3.20 pm local time.
The rupee had ended lower by 12 paise at 67.54 yesterday on steady demand for the greenback from importers and corporates.
Meanwhile, the benchmark Sensex was trading down by 116.62 points or 0.44 per cent at 26,581.20.
The dollar took a breather on Wednesday as investors waited to see if the US Federal Reserve will signal any acceleration in the pace of future rate increases to deal with an expected ramp-up in fiscal spending under President-elect Donald Trump.
In its policy meeting ending later in the day, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is seen as all but certain to raise its interest rate target by 0.25 percentage point to 0.50-0.75 per cent. The decision will be announced at 1900 GMT.