MUMBAI: The rupee rose to fresh one-month highs on Tuesday afternoon buoyed by gains in the domestic sharemarket and tracking losses in the dollar versus major currencies.
At 2:20 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 46.19/20 per dollar, above its close of 46.29/30 on Monday. Earlier in the day, the rupee rose to 46.0850, its highest since Dec. 3.
In 2009, foreign portfolio buying of domestic stocks, totalling more than $17 billion, helped the rupee rise 12 per cent from a record low of 52.2 in early March. The rupee gained 4.7 per cent for the year as a whole.
Most regional currencies were stronger compared to the dollar on Tuesday. The dollar index against six major currencies was down 0.1 per cent.
Traders were also watching shares for cues on fund flows. Indian shares <.BSESN> were trading up 0.7 per cent led by gains in banks and financial stocks, mirroring world markets' gain on optimism that the global economy was on a recovery path.
In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both quoting at 46.25, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $3.7 billion.
