The rupee firmed up further in late morning deals and was trading higher by 18 paise to quote at 66.64 following sustained selling of the greenback by banks and exporters amid weakness of dollar overseas on the back of higher equities.

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The domestic unit resumed marginally higher at 66.77 per dollar as against yesterday's level of 66.82 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

It hovered in a range of 66.79 to 66.62 per dollar during the morning deals before quoting 66.64 at 1030 hrs.

The dollar index was down 0.28 per cent at 95.85 as against a basket of six currencies in the early trade.

"The USD-INR currency pair has been under pressure, close to touching the psychological level of 67 per dollar, tracking weakness in other Emerging Market currencies." The dollar firm against the yen and other currencies as equities stabilise, a forex dealer said.

However, oil prices remained weak as the global economic outlook darkened further and cooperation between oil producing countries to curb oversupply looked unlikely.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading higher by 54.37 points or 0.22 per cent to 24,948.18 at 1120 hrs.

PTI