The rupee strengthened to 64.03 against the dollar that remained shaky after US President Donald Trump’s comments about a government shutdown.

According to analysts, the dollar’s global weakness was mostly an offshoot of President Donald Trump’s threat, who said he was willing to risk a government shutdown to ensure funding for a wall along the US-Mexico border.

They said that interest was also building up ahead of the global central bankers’ annual conference in Jackson Hole.

The rupee sentiment was also buoyed as exporters and banks stepped up selling of the American currency amid a firm domestic equity market.

The domestic unit opened up by 4 paise at 64.08 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market today. It hovered in a range of 64.08 and 64.03 before quoting at 64.03, up 9 paise at 4.30 pm local time.

Yesterday, the rupee had slipped 2 paise to close at 64.12 against the US currency.

The dollar edged higher against the yen on Thursday, paring some of the losses it suffered after US President Donald Trump suggested a shutdown of the government was possible and threatened to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The dollar edged up 0.1 per cent to 109.16 yen, regaining some ground in the wake of its 0.5 per cent drop on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE index closed up 28.05 points or 0.09 per cent at 31,596.06 and recorded a 0.23 per cent weekly gain.

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