<div>The rupee ended a touch weaker on Wednesday (9 April) despite domestic shares hitting record highs as caution prevailed ahead of the release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's March meeting.</div><div> </div><div>Foreign investors have been active buyers of debt and equities since March, and net purchases in April alone have already totalled $933.67 million, according to the market regulator's data.</div><div> </div><div>The rupee had touched an eight-month high of 59.5950 on April 2, before giving up some gains, with the Reserve Bank of India also suspected of having bought dollars to replenish its foreign exchange reserves.</div><div> </div><div>"The market expectation broadly is that the FOMC minutes will be less hawkish than the press conference in March," said Nizam Idris, a strategist with Macquarie Capital in Singapore.</div><div> </div><div>The partially convertible rupee closed at 60.14/15 per dollar compared with 60.11/12 on Monday. Financial markets were closed on Tuesday for a local holiday.</div><div> </div><div>The rupee rose to the session high of 59.80 as the BSE Sensex rose as much as 1.77 per cent to an all-time high of 22,740.04, while the Nifty rose as much as 1.7 percent to a record high of 6,808.70.</div><div> </div><div>However, gains were capped ahead of the Fed's minutes given continued concerns about when the central bank will start to raise interest rates as it unwinds its asset-purchase programme.</div><div> </div><div>Some dealers also cited dollar buying by state banks for defence purposes.</div><div> </div><div>In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 60.62, while the three-month was at 61.37.</div><div> </div><div>(Reuters)</div>
