The Indian on friday extend gains and strengthened for the third consecutive session against the US dollar, as the local equity market gained for the fourth session.

The rupee opened at 67.05 per US dollar, up 15 paise compared to previous day's closing value of 67.17a dollar.

India’s benchmark Sensex index rose 0.16% or 41.81 points to 26,408.49. Since the last four days, Sensex has gained 4.5% or 1,150 points. So far this year, Sensex has gained 0.5%.

Most Asian currencies were trading lower. Japanese yen was down 0.16%, Malaysian ringgit 0.15%, China offshore 0.09%, Singapore dollar 0.09% and Thai baht 0.04%. However, Taiwan dollar was up 0.12%.