<div>The rupee rose on 27 February' 2013, touching an over two-week high at one point, on optimism the government will deliver a fiscally disciplined 2013/14 budget, attracting more foreign flows into the country.</div><div> </div><div>Investors are also hopeful the government will unveil measures to boost investments on Thursday when Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presents the budget for the year starting in April.</div><div> </div><div>The economic survey showed on Wednesday said India was likely to hit a fiscal deficit target of 5.3 GDP this year despite a significant shortfall in revenue, adding there would be further scope for monetary easing if the government continued with its fiscal consolidation plan.</div><div> </div><div>"INR rose as expectations are for an investor friendly budget and not a voter friendly one. But there was oil and defence demand in the late session which pulled rupee off highs," said Uday Bhatt, a foreign exchange dealer with UCO Bank.</div><div> </div><div>"I expect the rupee to hold in a 53.80 to 54.20 range until the budget announcement tomorrow," he added.</div><div> </div><div>Chidambaram is due to start presenting the 2013/14 budget in parliament starting around 11 a.m. on Thursday.</div><div> </div><div>The partially convertible rupee closed at 53.86/87 per dollar compared with its previous close of 54.09/10.</div><div> </div><div>The unit rose as high as 53.63, its strongest since February 11, but retreated a tad on month-end dollar demand from oil companies and defence-related firms.</div><div> </div><div>Traders said a rebound in shares from three-month lows in the previous session also helped, as recent blue chip underperformers rose on value buying.</div><div> </div><div>Globally, risk assets recovered from Tuesday's losses after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the US central bank's monetary stimulus, easing worries over a possible early retreat from bond purchases.</div><div> </div><div>In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 54.19 while the three-month was at 54.82.</div><div> </div><div>In the currency futures market, the most-traded near-month dollar/rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange all closed at around 54.1750 with a total traded volume of $6.45 billion.<br /><br />(PTI)</div>
