The rupee strengthened 44 paise to 53.80 against the dollar due to sustained capital inflows and dollar selling by exporters on Tuesday.
The Indian unit had closed higher at 54.24 on Monday.
Tuesday, the unit opened stronger at 54.17 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market. The dollar’s weakness against Asian currencies and a robust opening in the domestic equity market supported the rupee.
The BSE benchmark index Sensex ended higher at 117 points (up 0.60 per cent) to 19,504.
Intra-day, the rupee declined to 54.25 in the early trades on mild capital outflows. However, it recovered on further dollar selling and inflows on key monetary policy rate cut hopes from the RBI.
The rupee is likely to trade positive this week on expectations of a 25 basis points reduction in the repo rate in RBI’s annual monetary policy review on May 3.
Call rates, G-Sec
The interbank call money rates closed higher at 8.25 per cent from their previous close of 7.55 per cent on Monday. Intra-day, it has moved in the 7.50 to 8.50 per cent.
The benchmark 8.15 per cent government security, which matures in 2022, ended higher at Rs 102.68 from Rs 102.49, while yields declined to 7.73 per cent from 7.76 per cent.