The Indian rupee on Monday opened 19 paise higher against the US dollar at 68.65 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange. The continued losses of the American currency, increased foreign inflows and a higher opening of the domestic equity markets helped the rupee recover. An intervention by the central bank to help the domestic currency is also suspected.

After the Indian currency's steep fall on Thursday night that dragged it down to its all-time low at 69.12 against the dollar, it recovered impressively on Friday surging 21 paise to end at 68.84. The US dollar fell against currencies overseas after the country's president Donald Trump, said that China and Europe were manipulating their currencies and the US Federal Reserve was hurting the country's economy by raising the interest rates, a Reuters report said.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex rose further by 79.40 points, or 0.21 percent to trade at 36,575.77 in early trade. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 310.27 crore on Friday, as per provisional data, PTI reported.