The Indian rupee Friday staged a mild recovery to close at 70.82, rising 8 paise against the US dollar in line with rally in domestic stocks and positive global cues.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex), the rupee opened on a firm note at 70.58 against the US dollar and surged further to touch a high of 70.44 during the day.
The local unit finally settled for the day at 70.82, higher by 8 paise over its previous closing price.
On Thursday, the rupee lost 44 paise against the dollar to close at 70.90.
Forex dealers said the local unit recovered lost ground tracking weakness in American dollar against some currencies overseas following reports that the Federal Reserve could slow down its pace of interest rate hikes next year.
The Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL) set the reference rate for the rupee/dollar at 70.5663 and for rupee/euro at 80.2245. The reference rate for rupee/British pound was fixed at 90.1212 and for rupee/100 Japanese yen at 62.53.
Meanwhile, global crude oil prices soared as much as 4 per cent as Russia and OPEC members seemed to have moved closer to an agreement to cut output. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was meeting in Vienna for a second day running.
Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, was trading 4.21 per cent higher at USD 62.62 per barrel Friday.
The BSE Sensex rallied 361.12 points, or 1.02 per cent, to close at 35,673.25. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty jumped 92.55 points, or 0.87 per cent, to 10,693.70.
