Rupee rises 15 paise to 74.69 against US dollar in early trade

Mumbai, July 31 (PTI): The Indian rupee surged 15 paise to 74.69 against the American dollar in early deals on Friday tracking weakness in the greenback.

At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened at 74.74, gained further ground and touched 74.69 against the US dollar, up 15 paise over its last close of 74.84.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell by 0.40 per cent to 92.65.

“The US dollar extended losses this morning in Asian trade weighed down by weak economic data and President Trump’s tweet on elections,” Reliance Securities said in a research note.

The US economy plunged by a record-shattering 32.9 per cent annual rate last quarter.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday for the first time openly floated the idea of postponing the presidential elections in November, a suggestion immediately criticised by leaders of the opposition Democratic Party.

“With universal mail-in voting (not absentee voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history,” Trump tweeted on Thursday, just 96 days before the election.

On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 22.86 points lower at 37,713.21 and broader NSE Nifty fell 1.55 points to 11,100.60.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 207.30 crore on Thursday, according to provisional exchange data.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.54 per cent to USD 43.17 per barrel.