Rupee pares early gains, down 9 paise vs USD in late morning

The rupee dropped from initial gains and was trading down by 9 paise at 67.10 against the American unit in late morning deals on sustained bouts of dollar demand from importers and banks despite higher domestic equities.
The rupee opened a tad higher at 67 as against yesterday's closing of 67.01 per dollar at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.
It gained further to 66.98 on bouts of dollar selling from banks before quoting at 67.10 at 1030 hrs.
The domestic unit hovered in a range of 67.1450 to 66.98 in the morning deals.
Meanwhile, the dollar index was up 0.29 per cent at 96.29 against a basket of six currencies in early trade.

Overseas, the US dollar trading in narrow range against the basket currencies in early Asian trade, penned in by uncertainty about the outcome of Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve policy meetings later in the session.
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was trading higher by 149.52 points or 0.52 per cent to 28,672.72 at 1050 hrs.