Rupee surges past 45 a dollar to a near-5 month high

The rupee hit a new high of 44.99 against the dollar, powered by sustained flows of foreign funds that continued to flood the local share markets. This was rupee's highest value against the dollar since 13 May this year.

The Indian unit continued to trade at around 45 to the dollar for most of the trading session today.

The rupee rally was helped by government's move last week to raise foreign investment ceiling in government and corporate bonds by $5 billion each.

Foreign Institutional Investors have bought Indian shares worth around $4.5 billion this month alone, taking net 2010 FII investments in India to $17.4 billion.

The BSE Sensex, the benchmark Indian stock index, climbed over 1 per cent today to hit a 32-month high.

The rupee, which opened at 45.1350 a dollar against its previous close of 45.2550, got support from a strong stock market.