By Subhadip SircarIndia’s rupee reached a three-month high after breaking out of a tight trading band, boosted by strong inflows and our hope that the central bank may be slowing its buys of dollars.The rupee arise as much as 0.6% to 74.5562 per dollar, its highest since March 27, before closing up 0.5%. The currency has strengthened 1.3% the coming week in Asia’s best performance.The currency rallied 0.8% on Thursday, with traders attributing the strength to inflows from Reliance Industries Ltd.’s stake marketings in its digital section and the Reserve Bank of India stepping away from buying dollars. The potential of a rare current-account surplus following robust foreign overflows and low-toned high oil prices has burnished the rupee’s outlook, which was the region’s biggest decliner in the first six months of 2020. “India’s a better balance between payments surplus is one of the strongest in recent years, and we see that continuing to support the INR, ” said Divya Devesh, head of Asean and South Asia FX research at Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore. “While the central bank is likely to continue with its reserves house, historically, they have not targeted specific levels.” 7678176 0Overseas funds piled $4.2 billion into Indian stocks in the June quarter, the highest in Asia. Reliance’s unit Jio Platforms Ltd. alone has attracted about $16 billion via venture marketings. The speculation weapon of Intel Corp. on Friday agreed to pay 18.95 billion rupees ($ 253 million) for a slice of Jio.Despite the gush of inflows, the RBI has been resolutely buying dollars to build stockpiles, which have tided past $500 billion to a record. The central bank is estimated to have bought $17.2 billion in the seven weeks through June 19, according to Bloomberg Economics. Merchants cited intermittent dollar buying by state-owned banks on Friday.“The RBI seemed to intervene around noon to minimize volatility after yesterday’s swing, ” said Jateen Trivedi, elderly investigate specialist – currency& stocks at LKP Securities Ltd.While accumulate fund might retard the rupee’s ascent, it is unlikely to stop amplifications amid weakness in the U.S. dollar, StanChart’s Devesh said. He is recommending investors to’ short’ USD-INR with a target of 73.50. –With help from Aaryan Khanna.

Read more: economictimes.indiatimes.com