Maintaining its rising streak for the third straight day, the rupee on Friday strengthened further by 21 paise to 61.86 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased selling of the US currency by banks.

Forex dealers said besides selling of the American currency by banks and exporters, easing of norms by Reserve Bank for providing swaps to banks that are borrowing funds overseas and a higher opening in the domestic stock market also buoyed the sentiment.

They said, however, dollar’s gain against euro, fuelled by better-than-forecast jobs data, capped the rupee’s gain.

The rupee had gained 37 paise to close at one-week high of 62.07 a dollar yesterday as the RBI eased swap norms for banks borrowing funds overseas.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex on Friday rose 87.72 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 19,981.57 in early trade.