Mumbai: The rupee today (Dec 5, 2006) started the day with further gains against the US currency due to weak dollar in the world markets.

Select dollar sales and increased inflows into the stock market also helped the Indian currency to show firmness, brokers said.

In quiet trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (FOREX) market, the Indian unit started firm at Rs 44.58/60 per dollar as compared to yesterday's close of Rs 44.61/62 and rose further to Rs 44.54/55 per dollar during early trade.

In New York, the dollar retraced much of its overnight gains on Monday, exiting the North American session barely higher against its major rivals as with little fresh US data to trade off on Monday, investors instead readied themselves for a slew of data set for release on Tuesday, as well as a series of central bank rate decisions throughout the week, dealers said.

Meanwhile, at the Bombay Stock Exchange, history was created when the Sensex crossed the 14,000-point level for the first time on heavy fund inflows.