<div>The rupee rose to a three-week high on Wednesday, extending gains for a fifth session, with corporates selling the dollar as the Indian currency continued its recovery.<br /><br />The rupee's sharp recovery has been aided by the easing of geopolitical concerns, with an attack on Syria appearing less imminent, and the announcement of a series of steps to attract inflows by the new central bank Governor, Raghuram Rajan.<br /><br />Dealers cited large dollar inflows from a private petrochemical company as well as some likely dollar selling related to Mylan Inc's $1.6 billion deal to acquire a unit of Strides Arcolab Ltd.<br /><br />Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought $421.15 million worth of shares on Tuesday, bringing their total to nearly $800 million over the previous four sessions.<br /><br />"The panic dollar buying has reduced. Those who were sitting on the sidelines hoping for further falls in the currency have started selling. I expect the rupee to recover to 61 to the dollar," said Satyajit Kanjilal, chief executive at ForexServe.<br /><br />The partially convertible rupee closed at 63.38/39 per dollar compared with 63.84/85 on Tuesday. It rose to 63.0575 in session, its best level since August 19.<br /><br />The rupee has now recovered 5.8 percent over the last five sessions, its longest winning streak in a year, since Raghuram Rajan took over as the central bank chief on September 4 and unveiled a raft of steps including allowing banks to borrow more overseas and offering a concessional swap facility to banks to raise deposits from overseas Indians.<br /><br />Globally, investors are seeking high-yielding assets after U.S. President Barack Obama pledged on <br />Tuesday to explore a diplomatic plan from Russia to take away Syria's chemical weapons, although he voiced scepticism about it and urged Americans to support his plan to use military force if needed.<br /><br />The rupee is waiting for the monetary policy on Oct 20. Prior to that, the government will detail July <br />factory data and August inflation data.<br /><br />Dealers are now focusing on whether Rajan will reverse the cash tightening steps initiated by his <br />predecessor Duvvuri Subbarao in mid-July to curb rupee speculation.<br /><br />In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 64.12 while the three-month was at 65.37.<br /><br />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 around 63.62 with a total traded volume of $3.4 billion.<br /><br />(Reuters)<br /> </div>
