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| Photo Credit: V.V. Krishnan

The rupee stayed firm and rose 9 paise to 82.74 against the U.S. dollar in early trade on March 7 on the back of a weak American currency overseas and sustained inflow of foreign funds in the domestic capital markets.

The local currency also found support from positive equity markets, however, volatile crude oil prices capped its rally, Forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic currency opened at 82.82 and gained further to trade at 82.74 against the greenback, climbing 9 paise from its previous close.

On March 6, the rupee settled 7 paise higher at 82.83 against the U.S. dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, declined by 0.07% to 103.24.

The low level of dollar index was attributed to the U.S. payroll data released on March 6, which showed lower-than-expected job growth in February.

Also, the indication of dovish monetary policy moves by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell in his testimony before the Congress impacted the market participants, according to analysts.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.13% to $82.85 per barrel.

In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 58.49 points or 0.08% higher at 74,144.48 points. The broader NSE Nifty rose 17.00 points or 0.08% to 22,491.05 points.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital markets on March 6 as they bought shares worth ₹2,766.75 crore, according to exchange data.