Rupee continues upward march Vs dollar

MUMBAI: The rupee on Tuesday continued its upward march and was quoted slightly better at 40.3550/3650 against the US currency on firm equity markets.
    
In quiet trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the Indian unit opened strong at 40.32/34 a dollar from Monday's close of 40.3700/3750 per dollar.
    
But it later reacted slightly downward on stray dollar purchases by oil refinery companies and was quoted at 40.3550/3650 a dollar in late morning deals.
    
Forex dealers attributed the rally in the rupee to continued upsurge in the equity markets. The BSE benchmark Sensex climbed to hit yet another intra-session high of
15,426.68 points on Tuesday, up over 115 points on reports that the nation's most valued firm RIL has struck huge gas reserves in Cauvery Basin.
    
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reportedly pumped in over 1.22 billion dollars last week.
    
FIIs have bought nearly USD 2.1 billion equities in the first nine days of July, taking their total purchases this year to USD 7.8 billion, almost equal to USD 7.9 billion last
year.
    
In New York on Monday, the dollar held steady against its rivals and traded in tight ranges against the euro and the yen in a day that was bereft of major US economic news.