Mumbai, April 10: The rupee strengthened to its highest in more than 19 months on Friday, tracking local shares and supported by strong Asian currencies that rose on intensified talks of an appreciation in the Chinese yuan.
* At 2:55 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 44.295/300 per dollar after hitting 44.23, its highest since Sept. 8, 2008. It had ended at 44.46/47 on Thursday.
* The BSE Sensex was up 1.2 percent.
* The index of the dollar against six major currencies was down 0.23 percent.
* The Taiwan dollar and Korean won led another strong Asian rally on Friday as speculation that Beijing was close to allowing the yuan to rise intensified even though the Chinese currency barely moved from its previous close.
* The one-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were at 44.25/35, stronger than the onshore spot rate.
* In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and its rival exchange MCX-SX were both at 44.3675.
–Agencies