SIF: Rupee at over 6-week high; shares, peers help
A bank employee counts bundles of currency at a cash counter in Agartala, c...
The rupee strengthened to its strongest level in more than six weeks on Friday, on track for a fifth successive gain, tracking higher regional peers and local shares that raised hopes for foreign fund inflows.
At 10:05 a.m. (0435 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 45.78/79 per dollar, off a high of 45.75, its strongest since Jan. 19 and slightly above its previous close of 45.80/81 on Thursday.
"There is decent dollar demand from oil companies, but offshore players and others are selling in anticipation of NMDC flows next week," said Madhusudan Somani, head of forex at Yes Bank.
The government is set to sell shares in state-run miner NMDC, the country's largest iron ore producer, to raise about $3 billion in an offer March 10-12.
"It is a pretty large issue and given the positive sentiment in equities it should see decent participation from foreign funds," Somani said.
The rupee should trade in tight range on Friday, with traders awaiting the U.S. non-farm payroll data for February around 1330 GMT, he added.
Dealers said comments from Greece Prime Minister George Papandreou who is visiting Berlin after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's invitation would also set the tone for the dollar and other majors next week.
Most Asian units were stronger compared to the dollar. The index of the dollar against six major currencies was also down 0.1 percent.
The BSE Sensex was trading up 0.7 percent with Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank leading the gainers, taking cues from firmer Asian equities.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were at 45.77/87, little changed from the onshore spot rate.
In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both at 45.87, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $600 million.
(Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)
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