Indian rupee gained for a seventh day against the US dollar, as the greenback struggled to hold ground amidst falling investor appetite for safe haven currencies.

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At 09:10 AM, the rupee was trading at 71.12 a dollar, up 34 paise from its Tuesday’s close of 71.46. The home currency opened at 71.14 and touched a high and a low of 71.10 and 71.14 a dollar, respectively.

Indian money markets were shut on Wednesday for a public holiday.

The rupee also got a boost after oil markets started Thursday timidly, with rising US crude inventories pressuring prices.

India imports nearly 80 percent of its total oil needs and a fall in price would drive down the value of its imports. A fall in oil prices by $10 per barrel helps reduce the current account deficit by $9.2 billion, according to market experts.

Besides, fund inflows by foreign investors and a pullback in dollar from 16-month highs also supported the domestic unit.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), made fresh purchases worth Rs 1,103.36 crore Monday, as per provisional data.

The dollar index, a measure of its value versus six major peers, traded lower at 96.7 on Thursday. The index lost more than 0.1 percent of its value in the previous trading session.

Falling crude oil prices have supported the rupee, until recently the worst-performing monetary unit in Asia. This month, the local unit has gained 2.79 percent against the dollar, making the rupee the third best performer after the Chilean peso and the Indonesian rupiah.

In debt markets, the yields on the 10-year government bonds fell 0.41 percent to 7.76 percent after closing at 7.79 percent on Tuesday. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

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