Rupee firms up by 26 paise vs US dollar in late morning deals

The rupee extended its gains by 26 paise to 64.80 against the US currency in late morning deals on sustained bouts of dollar selling by banks and exporters amid weak dollar overseas.
The rupee opened higher at 64.90 per dollar as against overnight level of 65.06 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.
It hovered in the range of 64.9250 to 64.7525 per dollar during the morning deals before quoting 64.80 at 1030 hrs.
The dollar index currently trading lower by 0.08 per cent at 95.22 as against a basket of six currencies.
In New York, US dollar fell after the release of the Fed minutes, while the euro gained. The minutes from the September meeting revealed that the FOMC did not raise rates in part because of global growth concerns.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading up by 329 points to 27,174.61 at 1035 hrs.