The Indian rupee opened 27 paise higher per dollar at 76.10 against previous close of 76.37. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reduced the timing of market hours for call money market, government securities market, currency market till April 17 (from 10 am to 2 pm) following the unprecedented situation that has emerged due to the spread of coronavirus.

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The domestic markets, meanwhile, also opened higher on Thursday following global peers. The Sensex and Nifty surged over 2 percent in first few minutes after the opening bell.

Asian shares rose on Thursday on hopes the COVID-19 pandemic is nearing a peak and that governments would roll out more stimulus measures, while expectations of an oil production cut agreement bolstered crude prices.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.6 percent, following a strong Wall Street close. Shares in China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged late last year, rose 0.54 percent. Australian shares were up 1.52 percent.

(With inputs from Reuters)