The Indian rupee strengthened for a fourth session in five on Tuesday as investor hopes for a parliamentary approval to foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail grew a day ahead of the impending vote. The partially convertible rupee closed at 54.68/69 per dollar versus its previous close of 54.77/78. In the offshore non-deliverable forwards, the one-month contract was at 54.97, while the three-month contract was at 55.49.

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 at around $54.8975 with a total traded volume of $5.20 billion.

Copyright Reuters, 2012