The Indian rupee was up 7 paise at Rs 45.05 per US dollar in early trade on Monday on sustained selling of the American currency by banks and corporates amid firm domestic equity markets.

In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange, the rupee opened slightly higher at 45.08/10 per dollar as against last Friday's closing level of 45.12/13 per dollar. It fell to 45.20 during the course of morning deals, but regained some of the last ground to a high of 45.05 per dollar.

Persistent dollar-selling by exporters and some banks in light of a firm trend in the domestic equity market mainly assisted the rupee's rise, a forex dealer said.

The Indian benchmark Sensex was up 87 points, or 0.43 per cent, in early trade today.

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar plummeted today today after China's central bank raised borrowing and lending rates yesterday and some analysts say expectations of more tightening by China could prompt investors to sell more Australian dollars after the year-end holidays.

Meanwhile, oil prices were hovering above USD 91 a barrel in Asia today after some OPEC ministers signalled that the group does not plan to boost output to cool the recent jump in crude prices.