Rising for the third straight day, the rupee strengthened by 12 paise to 59.63 against the dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on sustained selling of the US currency by exporters amid a higher opening of the domestic equity market.

Forex dealers said besides selling of dollars by exporters, strength in other currencies against the American unit overseas also supported the rupee.

The domestic currency had gained three paise to close at 59.75 against the dollar yesterday.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex rose by 74.93 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 25,519.74 in early trade today.