Rupee has best month on record

The rupee completed its best month on record, as optimism that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will revive stalled reforms in his second term fueled a rally in stocks and attracted funds from overseas.

The currency has advanced 6.4 per cent this month to 47.0875 a dollar at the close, the best performance since at least 1973. The rupee closed at a five-month high after a report today showed Asia’s third-biggest economy expanded 5.8 per cent last quarter from a year earlier.