The Indian rupee rose to a near three-week high on Thursday as gains in domestic shares raised hopes for sustained capital inflows while broad losses in the dollar also supported sentiment. The partially convertible rupee closed at 44.95/96 per dollar after hitting 44.8750, its strongest since December 7, and 0.2 percent stronger than its close of 45.04/05 on Wednesday.
"Lots of selling by exporters has been seen in the last two to three days. Stocks were also positive today, so that helped as well, and overall other Asians also gained," the chief foreign exchange dealer with a foreign bank said. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 45.16, weaker than the onshore spot rate, suggesting a bearish near-term outlook. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX closed at 45.17 and 45.1675, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at $2.9 billion.