MUMBAI: The Indian rupee jumped to its highest level in over three weeks on Tuesday, boosted by likely dollar inflows and persistent weakness in the greenback, which teetered near a five-month low against major peer currencies.
The rupee rose to a peak of 86.54 against the US dollar, its highest since February 21, before closing at 86.57, up over 0.2% on the day.
At least three large foreign banks sold dollars, helping lift the rupee, a trader at a mid-sized private bank said. Bids by state-run banks, however, kept a lid on further gains, traders said.
The rupee has strengthened for four consecutive sessions and is up about 0.8% so far this month, aided by a broadly weaker greenback, an uptick in exporter dollar sales and modest inflows.
India’s benchmark equity indexes, the BSE Sensex and Nifty 50, rose more than 1% each on Tuesday, powered by financial and metal stocks.
Meanwhile, the dollar index eased nearly 0.2% to 103.3 and Asian currencies were largely rangebound.
