Rupee up 74 paise against dollar

The lasttime the local currency made a similar big gain was on October 28, 2011 whenjumped by 74 paise.

Freshdollar selling by exporters on expectations of fall in dollar's value overseastoo boosted the rupee sentiment, forex dealers said.

They saidthat dollar inflows into the government's debt instrument in Wednesday'sauction by the central bank too aided the rupee surge. However, dollar demandfrom oil importers restricted the rupee's gain, dealers added.

At theInterbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the rupee opened strong at 51.84/85a dollar. It further improved continuously in line with strong local equities.

Ittouched a high of 51.40 before closing at 51.46/47, up 1.42 per cent.

Meanwhile,the BSE benchmark index, Sensex, surged by nearly 360 points , or 2.23 per centto end the day at two-week high of 16,483.45.

Afterremoving over $1.25 billion in last straight 11 sessions, FIIs pumped in$ 26.80million on Wednesday, as per Securities Exchange Board of India's data.

On theother hand, food inflation dipped to 8 per cent for the week ended November 19from 9.01 per cent last week.