The rupee was trading up by 20 paise at 61.83 against the dollar at 3.45 p.m. local time on fresh dollar selling by banks and exporters.
The rupee opened marginally strong at 62 per dollar against the previous close of 62.03 owing to firm domestic equity market and foreign inflows.
The domestic unit had weakened last week after the US Federal Reserve announced gradual tapering of quantitative easing by $10 billion every month.
However, experts maintained that Indian markets are better prepared to handle the tapering now than in August when the rupee had touched its life-time low of 68.80 against the American currency.
US stimulus taper
The US had been making statements of stimulus taper as its economy improves. The tapering is likely to limit the inflows into the emerging markets such as India.
However, the Reserve Bank of India’s two special concessional swap widows announced in mid-July helped mobilise $34 billion to forex reserves through banks. This has helped India to be in a better position to tackle the US tapering.
Treasury heads expect the rupee to trade in the 61.50-63 per dollar range this month.
Call rates, government securities
The inter-bank call money rates, the rates at which banks borrow short-term funds from each other, opened higher at 8.85 per cent against the previous close of 8.78 per cent.
The widely traded 8.83 per cent government security, which matures in 2023, ended higher at Rs 100.25 from the previous close of Rs 100.20. Yield on the security softened to 8.78 per cent from 8.79 per cent.
