The Indian rupee stormed ahead to end at a near one-month high of 67.06 against the US dollar, surging by 35 paise after a flurry of upbeat economic data bolstered confidence in the growth outlook.
A broadly stronger Indian unit also rallied against emerging-market currencies, including British pound, euro and Japanese yen.
Beating the street estimates and signalling a turnaround, the nation’s economy expanded at 7.7 per cent in the January-March period against 7.2 per cent achieved in Q3 FY18, retaining the fastest growing major economy tag.
The economic expansion was significantly higher than China’s 6.8 per cent in the January-March period.
In addition, infrastructure industries grew 4.7 per cent in April and also fiscal deficit for 2017-18 worked out to be 3.53 per cent of the GDP, broadly in line with the government’s revised estimates.
However, the upbeat Q4 GDP data damped bets of rate cut from the Reserve Bank of India next week, a forex dealer commented.
The rupee has gained a healthy 80 paise in the latest bout of three-day rally.
Though, renewed fears about trade war after the US imposed new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum kept forex sentiment little shaky with the rupee depreciating in early trade.
The domestic unit touched a low of 67.45 before staging a strong rebound.
On the energy front, crude futures regained ground after early losses, but the US benchmark is set for a second consecutive week of declines as US oil output comes close to matching that of top producer Russia.
Brent crude futures, an international benchmark, is trading weak at USD 77.04 a barrel in early Asian trade.
At the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market, the local unit resumed virtually flat at 67.41 against the US dollar.
