Rallying for the fourth straight session, the rupee today strengthened by 8 paise to close at a near three-week high of 64.36 a dollar on steady selling of the American currency by state-owned banks and exporters.
The rupee’s previous best was seen on May 17, when it had closed at 64.15.
A spectacular record-breaking bull-run in local stock markets along with robust capital inflows predominantly weighed on the home currency, despite strong dollar overseas.
Foreign funds and investors have pumped $ 4.2 billion in the country’s capital market in May in view of the country’s preparedness for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) roll out from the next month.
Expectations of normal monsoon also added to the optimism.
Extending its strong upmove, the rupee resumed substantially higher at 64.35 against last weekend’s close of 64.44 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market.
It gained further ground to hit an intra-day high of 64.29 in late morning deals.
But, some caution adopted by participants ahead of the apex bank meet along with modest dollar demand, which pressurised the home currency to give up early strong advances to hit a low of 64.39 before ending at 64.36, showing a gain of 0.08 paise, or 0.12 per cent.