The rupee strengthened by 73 paise to close at 61.74 against the dollar due to dollar weakness and stronger capital inflows.
The demand for the American dollar dampened following a failure by the US lawmakers to resolve a budget impasse.
With this, the domestic unit touched it’s highest since August 16. It has recovered about 10 per cent from its life-time low of 68.80 per dollar on August 28.
The unit gained 32 paise to 62.15 in the opening trade against Tuesday’s close of 62.47 as the American currency weakened against overseas currencies after the US Government shut down.
Intra-day, it touched a high of 61.67, after slipping to 62.22 per dollar in the early trades due to mild dollar outflows.
Currency traders remained hopeful that the US shutdown will delay the end of tapering of the $85-billion monetary stimulus. This has further delayed fears of dollar outflows from emerging markets such as India.
In addition, stronger equity markets which ended 384.92 points (1.97 per cent) stronger at 19,902 points supported the rupee.
Call rates, G-Sec up
The inter-bank call money rate, the rate at which banks borrow from each other to meet their short-term fund requirement, ended at 9.50 per cent against the previous close of 9.35 per cent.
The 7.16 per cent government security, which matures in 2023, closed higher at Rs 90.47 from the previous close of Rs 89.90. Yields softened 20 bps to 8.63 per cent from of 8.73 per cent.