Rupee firms up further against dollar in late morning trade

The rupee advanced further to 13 paise at 63.87 against the American currency in late morning trade on sustained selling of greenback by banks and exporters due to weakness of dollar in the overseas market.

The rupee resumed higher at 63.97 per dollar against the Wednesday's closing level of 64.00 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and hovered in a range of 63.82 and 64.04 before quoting at 63.87 at 1100 hrs, showing a gain of 13 paise.

Banks and exporters preferred to reduce their dollar position in view of lower dollar in the overseas market.

In New York, the US dollar weakened against most of its major rivals on Wednesday after a slate of weaker-than-expected economic data.

Meanwhile, in a choppy trade, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading down around 193 points in late morning deals following selling in IT, teck, banking, pharma and capital goods stocks.