Rupee rises 6 paise at 73.12 against USD, gold rises Rs 237

Mumbai, May 20 (PTI): The rupee strengthened by 6 paise to end at 73.12 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, tracking the weakness in the American currency in the overseas market.
At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 73.16 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 73.09 and a low of 73.17.
It finally ended at 73.12 against the American currency, registering a rise of 6 paise over its previous closing. On Wednesday, the rupee had settled at 73.18 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.09 per cent to 90.10. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 1.91 per cent to USD 65.39 per barrel. On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 337.78 points or 0.68 per cent lower at 49,564.86, while the broader NSE Nifty declined 124.10 points or 0.83 per cent to 14,906.05. Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 697.75 crore, as per exchange data. Gold in the national capital on Thursday rose by Rs 237 to Rs 47,994 per 10 gram helped by supportive global trends, according to HDFC Securities. In the previous trade, the precious metal had closed at Rs 47,757 per 10 gram.
Silver also moved higher by Rs 153 to Rs 71,421 per kilogram from Rs 71,268 per kilogram in the previous trade.
In the international market, gold was trading higher at USD 1,874 per ounce and silver was flat at USD 27.80 per ounce.
“The rising virus cases in Asia also boosted buying in gold despite of stronger dollar,” according to HDFC Securities, Senior Analyst (Commodities), Tapan Patel.