At 11.50am, the rupee was trading at 73.79 a dollar, up 0.44% from its Thursday’s close of 74.13

The Indian rupee ended stronger against the US dollar for the third session against on Friday as equities gained due to a fall in global crude oil prices.

All eye are on consumer price inflation and index of industrial production data due later on Friday.

The home currency ended at 73.57 a dollar, up 0.75% from Thursday’s close of 74.13. The currency opened at 73.80 a dollar and touched an intra-day high of 73.52.

The 10-year g-sec closed at 7.984% from its previous close of 8.031%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Brent crude oil, which went past $86 a barrel for the first time in nearly four years last week, is currently trading at a three-week low just above $80. The international benchmark lost nearly 5.6% in the last two days.

The Sensex rose 2.15%, or 732.43 points, to 34,733.58 on Friday. Year to date, it gained 2%.

So far this year, the rupee has declined 13%, while foreign investors have sold $3.84 billion and $7.92 billion in the equity and debt markets, respectively.

Asian currencies were trading higher after U.S. inflation moderated and President Donald Trump was said to be planning a meeting with Chinese President Xi to defuse trade tension.

South Korean won rose 0.87%, Taiwan dollar 0.62%, Indonesian rupiah 0.24%, Philippines peso 0.19%, Singapore dollar 0.17%, Malaysian ringgit 0.07%. However, China Offshore spot was down 0.32%, China renminbi 0.16% and Japanese yen 0.12%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 94.994, down 0.02% from its previous close of 95.017.

SOURCE: livemint.com