Mumbai: The Indian rupee jumped to two-week highs on Monday buoyed by the dollar’s fall against major units overseas and tracking gains in other regional shares which could prompt foreigners to invest in the local stock market.
At 9:03am, the partially convertible rupee was at Rs46.61/62 per dollar, its highest since 26 October and above its previous close of Rs46.81/82.
The US dollar fell on Monday while the New Zealand dollar led other commodity-linked currencies sharply higher after dairy giant Fonterra lifted its forecast payout to farmer shareholders by almost 20%.
The dollar index, a gauge of the US unit’s performance versus six majors, was down 0.4 %. Most Asian currencies were also stronger compared to the dollar.
At 9:23am, the MSCI index of Asian stocks exclusing Japan was 1.4% higher, while the Nifty India stock futures traded in Singapore were up about 0.1%, both suggesting a flat to higher start to the local sharemarket.