Rupee gains for 3rd session

The rupee strengthened against the US currency for the third straight session on Wednesday, closing nine paise higher at 74.19 (provisional) amid a rally in domestic equities.

At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened at 74.16 and hit an intra-day high of 74.08 and a low of 74.24. It finally closed at 74.19, higher by 9 paise over its last close. On Tuesday, the rupee had settled at 74.28 against the US dollar. In the international market, gold was trading in the green at $1,815 per ounce, while silver was flat at $25.71 per ounce.

"It's another fairly slow day in terms of price action, rupee stayed right through the day and heads for the third consecutive daily gains. The reason behind the recent gain is the rally in domestic equities and inflows from series of IPOs this week. all eyes will be on Friday's RBI's stance on liquidity management and outlook for coming quarters. Technically, spot USDINR is expected to trade with negative bias and one should see levels of 74.10 and 73.90 in the coming days while any level around 74.50 will be looked as fresh short-selling," said Dilip Parmar, research analyst, HDFC Securities.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.01 per cent to $72.42 per barrel. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, advanced 0.01 per cent to 92.09.

Gold gains Rs 123; silver zooms `766

Gold in the national capital on Wednesday rose by Rs 123 to Rs 46,992 per 10 gram amid gains in international precious metal prices.

In the previous trade, the precious metal had closed at Rs 46,869 per 10 grams. Silver also zoomed Rs 766 to Rs 66,926 per kilogram from Rs 66,160 per kilogram in the previous trade. "Spot gold prices for 24 carats in Delhi rose by Rs 123 with recovery in COMEX gold prices," said Tapan Patel, senior analyst (commodities), HDFC Securities.