Rs rises by 15 paise to 68.54 against $

Mumbai: The rupee on Monday advanced by 15 paise to close at 68.54 against the US currency, tracking gains in domestic equities and weakness in the greenback overseas.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 68.59 a dollar and advanced to a high of 68.51 during the day. It finally settled at 68.54, up 15 paise against its previous close of 68.69. Forex traders said Indian rupee gained taking cues from the higher Asian currencies.

"Asian currencies gained after China' economic growth data came in line with estimates and factory output and retail sales data for June beat the estimates, hinting at a recovery in the economy," said V K Sharma, Head PCG and Capital Markets Strategy, HDFC Securities.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, slipped 0.01 per cent to 96.80.

Rajesh Cheruvu, the Chief Investment Officer of Validus Wealth stated that the US dollar weakened post China's GDP data for the second quarter. According to analysts, Chinese data confirms slowdown fears which could play a role in tinkering of interest rate by the US Federal Reserve.

Meanwhile, the 10-year government bond yield was at 6.43 per cent on Monday.