MUMBAI: The rupee on Thursday rose to its highest in nearly a month as the euro's strength triggered dollar sales from exporters, while the seventhWhere Re comes from & goes Why currency keeps fluctuating
straight session gains in local shares also extended support.

The partially convertible rupee ended at 46.30/31 per dollar, off an intraday peak of 46.28, its strongest since May 20. It strengthened about 0.5 percent from the previous close of 46.55/56.

"A recovery in the euro lifted sentiment and restored some confidence that risk appetite is returning. A higher stock market also supported buying in the rupee," said a senior trader with a foreign bank.

"The rupee should trade in the 46.25 to 46.50 a dollar range on Thursday," he added.

The euro touched a three-week high versus the dollar on a well-covered Spanish bond auction. The Swiss franc rose against the dollar and euro as the Swiss National Bank relaxed its interventionist stance and said deflationary risks had all but disappeared.

The index of the dollar against six major currencies was down 0.4 percent.

A rise in domestic stocks also lifted sentiment. The BSE Sensex climbed 0.9 percent on Thursday, rising for the seventh straight session in its longest winning streak in 10 months.

Foreign fund flows into and out of the stock market influence the rupee's fortunes. So far in June, foreigners have bought a net $588 million worth of shares, after pulling out around $2 billion in May.

They are still net buyers of $5.2 billion so far in 2010.

One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts was at 46.41, weaker than the onshore spot rate.

In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX ended at 46.3775 and 46.3825 respectively, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $6.3 billion.
 

Mumbai, 
Indian markets broke out of a narrow range and ended higher Thursday, as traders took note of an upmove in Europe. All the sectoral indices ended in the positive terrain, led by capital goods and oil&gas space.

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex ended at 17616.69, up 153.82 points or 0.88 per cent. The 30-share index hit a high of 17647.42 and low of 17394.90.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 5274.85, up 41.50 points or 0.79 per cent. The index touched a high of 5285.55 and low of 5206.55.

“Nifty has been making higher top higher bottom formation on daily chart, which indicates further upmove towards the recent 52-week high 5400 level. We are in safe zone till the time Nifty sustains above medium term support of 5000 level,” said Chandan Taparia, derivative analyst, Anand Rathi.

The BSE Midcap Index was up 0.41 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index edged 0.58 per cent higher.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Capital Goods Index advanced 1.78 per cent, BSE Oil&gas Index moved 1.33 per cent higher and BSE Auto Index gained 0.93 per cent.

L&T (3.30%), Tata Motors (2.80%), Jaiprakash Associates (2.60%), Reliance Communications (2.30%) and Jindal Steel (2.20%) led the Sensex upmove.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) will be raising $2 billion for its Rajpura thermal power project in Punjab. India’s largest engineering company will be raising this amount through its special purpose vehicles, Nabha Power Ltd. The state-of-the-art 1,320-mw mega thermal plant is likely to be completed by January 2014.

Jaiprakash Associates has picked up 50 per cent stake in the fertiliser division of Duncans Industries.

All eyes will be on Reliance Industries meeting on Friday as investors will be keen to hear Mukesh Ambani’s plans on entry in telecom, power and healthcare sector.

Losers included Hero Honda (-1.26%), Hindustan Unilever (-1.08%), Tata Steel (-0.68%) and SBI (-0.67%).

Market breadth was positive on the BSE with 1614 advances and 1488 declines.

Elsewhere, European markets extended rally for seventh session and US futures indicated a positive start. At 5 pm IST, Dow Jones futures was up 0.35 per cent, S&P 500 gained 0.37 per cent and Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.357 per cent higher.
 

London, 
The Bachchans, the first family of Indian cinema, were out in force in London for the world premiere of the Bollywood film "Raavan."


Abhishek Bachchan, his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and father Amitabh Bachchan attended the showing late Wednesday, as did the film's director Mani Ratnam and Oscar-winning composer A. R. Rahman.

They were given the red carpet treatment at the British Film Institute Southbank complex next to the River Thames in central London.

The film, which stars Abhishek Bachchan and his wife, an actress and former Miss World, will be released in cinemas worldwide on Friday.

"India is the largest film industry in the world. We sell twice the amount of tickets that Hollywood does," Abhishek Bachchan told Sky News television.

"They are at a threshold where people have suddenly developed this love for Indian cinema.

"But I don't think it's going to be this huge rage in the English-speaking world. There is always a language barrier and that is something that has to be respected."

The film is a loose adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana, in which the wife of Lord Rama, Sita, is abducted by a demon. The movie is packed with action scenes, many of which take place in dense jungle.

Asked how she handled being thrown into water repeatedly while filming stunts for the movie, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan told the BBC: "It must have made acting easy, don't you think? Just throw her in there and suffer, and let's just film that."

Her husband added: "She came out looking as good and we were like 'Come on that's so unfair'."

Two versions of the film were made simultaneously -- one in the Hindi language and one in Tamil -- and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan said this made it "even more challenging."

But she said the experience was enjoyable and "very, very close to my heart."

"As an actor there's so much to do and so much to give to the character in the narrative, so I think we actors are always greedy and hungry and looking for work where we are actually able to enjoy the entire process."

She added that it was also nice for the couple to work with the director, Mani Ratnam, as he was "very, very dear to us."

"The director is my first director, the person I faced the camera with for the first time ever," she said.

"And here we were working together on what we believed is a good piece of cinema."

Amitabh Bachchan came to London after spending time in Paris.

"Abhishek and Aishwarya have flown in just this evening after hectic and tiring procedures being conducted for the promotions on 'Raavan', and it was such a delight to be all together again," he said in his blog Tuesday.

"Took them out to dinner, caught up on events and times, laughed."