 "Photo: Shutterstock")
The rupee on Thursday recovered 12 paise to close at one-month high of 66.62 per US dollar following heavy dollar unwinding by banks and exporters amid capital inflows.
Expectations of robust capital inflows on the back of fading political uncertainty along with bullish domestic stock markets largely supported the rupee momentum, a forex dealer said.
A weak dollar in overseas markets also supported the rupee rally with trade largely driven by cautious expectations.
Also Read
Meanwhile, extending the gains for the second session in a row, domestic stock markets ended on a firm note enthused by revived global sentiments following improved prospects of Hillary Clinton's win in today's US election.
The rupee opened on a mildly positive note at 66.72 from Monday's closing level of of 66.74 at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange (forex) market on dollar sale by exporters.
The home currency kept ascending to hit an intra-day high of 66.6125 before closing at one-month high of 66.62, showing a gain of 12 paise, or 0.18%. This is the highest closing level since October 10, 2016, when the rupee had finished at 66.53.
On the global front, the dollar Index, which measures its broader strength against a basket of currencies, was up 0.04% at 97.82 in the afternoon trade.
The RBI today fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.7073 and euro at 73.6515.
In cross-currency trades, the rupee strengthened further against the pound sterling to finish at 82.73 from 82.92 and edged higher against the euro to end at 73.61 as compared to 73.85 on Wednesday.
It also made further ground against the Japanese yen to settle at 63.69 from 63.92 per 100 yens earlier.
In the forward market, premium for dollar firmed up owing
to sustained paying pressure from corporates.
The benchmark six-month premium for May edged higher to 139-141 paise from 136-138 paise and the far-forward November 2017 contract also rose to 288-290 from 282-294 paise yesterday.
Meanwhile, the flagship Sensex shot up by a whopping 457.41 points to end at 26,694.28, while broader Nifty surged 144.80 points to 8,246.85.
On the global commodity trade, crude prices traded little changed and continued to consolidate its recent gains amid doubts over the proposed OPEC production cut deal would be sufficient to balance the market.
