Rupee at near 1-wk high on broad dollar drop

The rupee strengthened to its highest in nearly a week on Wednesday boosted by hopes for inflows into the local sharemarket with a broad dollar drop versus majors also underpinning market sentiment.



* The dollar was broadly on the defensive on Wednesday while the euro and higher-yielding currencies extended impressive gains as investor risk appetite showed little sign of waning ahead of the year end.



* Almost all Asian units were higher against the dollar. For a snapshot see



* At 9:06 a.m. the partially convertible rupee was at 46.16/17 per dollar, after having opened at 46.14, its highest since Nov. 26. Rupee had closed at 46.31/32 on Tuesday.



* The unit has rebounded more than 12.7 percent from a record low of 52.2 in early March on foreign portfolio flows of $15.4 billion into Indian equities this year.



* At 0336 GMT, the MSCI index of Asian stocks ex-Japan was up 1.2 percent while the Nifty India stock futures traded in Singapore were 0.3 percent higher, both pointing to higher opening in the local stock market.

sirfpaisa.com