Rupee gains 30 paise to 68.43 in late morning trade

The rupee strengthened further from early gains by 30 paise to 68.43 against the American currency in late morning deals in sustained bouts of dollar selling from banks and exporters amid higher domestic equites.

The rupee opened a tad higher at 68.72 per dollar as against Thursday's closing of 68.73 at the Interank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

Later, the volatile rupee hovered between 68.80 and 68.30 before quoting at 68.43 at 1030 hrs on persistent selling of dollar by banks.

The dollar Index was trading lower by 0.05% at 101.64 against a basket of six currencies.

Overseas, the US dollar was largely mixed against basket of currencies in early Asian trade, though it rose to an 8-month high against the yen as US bond yields resumed their rise in Asia after the Thanksgiving break shut markets in the United States.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading higher at 234.36 points or 0.91% at 26,094.53 at 1050 hrs.