Mumbai: The Indian currency climbed up today as a few capitalists’ overturned long positions in the U.S. dollar, buoyed by expectations that advancements in Asian equity markets would witness outsiders would purchase local shares.

In early trading (9:55 a.m.), the partially convertible rupee stood at 39.725/735 per dollar from its Thursday's close of 39.75/76.

A dealer with a private bank said, “We’ve been trading a range recently, and that's going to continue, though it's clear that the central bank won't let the (dollar-rupee) pair break out of the range on the downside.”

The rupee sentiment was promoted as Asian stocks expanded gains on Friday after commentaries by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke strengthened prospects of additional U.S. interest rate cuts.

Rising hopes of a Fed rate cut weighed down the US dollar that drifted against other major currencies on Friday.

Foreigners have sold around $1.3 billion worth of stocks in November up till now, after purchasing $4.3 billion during October, trimming their net purchases to about $16 billion for the year. Capital inflows have been a major driver of the rupee's rise.