India’s rupee, which completed the worst year since 1991, gained for the first time in three days on speculation global funds will resume equity purchases as the government steps up efforts to stave off an economic slump. The local currency strengthened as data from the stock market regulator showed overseas investors bought more Indian shares than they sold on Dec. 30, ending the longest stretch of net sales in a month. The rupee slid 19.2 percent last year, making it the second-worst performer in Asia, as foreigners dumped stocks and the benchmark index had the biggest annual slide on record. “The new year may bring respite for Indian assets as investors would prefer to put the worst behind them,” said Utsav Kumar Das, a currency trader at state-owned Allahabad Bank in Mumbai. “I expect the rupee to make substantial gains this year.” The rupee rose 0.3 percent to 48.64 a dollar as of 9:56 a.m. in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Global investors bought a net $30.8 million of local shares on Dec. 30, following five days of net sales, according to the latest data provided by the Securities & Exchange Board of India. They sold a record $13.3 billion last year as the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, or Sensex, tumbled 52 percent, the biggest drop since at least 1979. The worst U.S. housing slump since the Great Depression and credit losses of more than $1 trillion at financial firms worldwide pushed Japan, Europe and the world’s biggest economy into their first simultaneous recession since World War II. Investors fled riskier emerging markets and sought safe havens for their money, while governments and central banks slashed interest rates and pumped cash into their economies to counter the fallout. ‘Wonderful Time’ Mark Mobius at Templeton Asset Management Ltd. and Uri Landesman at ING Groep NV are snapping up stocks of the so- called BRICs on speculation global infrastructure spending and interest-rate cuts will help the economies avoid the recessions hurting developed nations. The MSCI BRIC Index lost 58 percent last year after demand for oil, steel, iron-ore, soybeans and other raw materials waned. BRIC is an acronym coined by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2001 to encompass the four emerging markets it predicted would join the U.S. and Japan as the world’s biggest economies by 2050. “We’re having a wonderful time buying tremendous bargains,” Mobius, who oversees about $26 billion as executive chairman of Templeton, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Dec. 24. “As value investors, this is the best time to be investing.” BOP Deficit The rupee’s advance may be tempered after a central bank report yesterday showed the nation’s current-account deficit in the quarter through September widened to a record. The shortfall in the broad measure of trade and investment flows increased to $12.4 billion from $9.8 billion in the previous quarter, indicating the economy needs more dollars to finance the deficit. The report also showed the overall balance of payments slipped into a deficit for the first time in almost three years. “Despite higher net invisibles surplus mainly emanating from private transfers and software exports, the widening trade deficit, mainly due to higher imports, led to higher current account deficit,” the central bank said. The nation’s trade deficit rose to $72.9 billion in the seven months to Oct. 31, compared with $45.6 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to government data.

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