The Indian Ocean Island nation’s currency appreciated 1 percent to 28.90 by 2:14 p.m. in Port Louis, the capital, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Versus the euro, the rupee gained 0.6 percent to 39.0614.
The 38-member SEMDEX index of stocks advanced 0.7 percent, the most since Sept. 9, to 1,862.24 by the 1:30 p.m. close. Leisure stocks led the gains. New Mauritius Hotels Ltd. (NMH), the country’s largest operator by turnover, advanced 4 rupees or 5.5 percent, to 77 rupees.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks today as lawmakers in Athens will vote on a property tax, key to securing an aid installment from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The European Central Bank may restart covered-bond purchases along with additional measures to ease monetary conditions.
“Any positive sentiment in Europe will imply same for our tourism industry,” Kishen Nadassen, a senior analyst at Cim Stockbrokers Ltd., said in a phone interview. “We are highly skewed towards the European market.”
Europe, led by France, accounted for 62 percent of arrivals in the island for the January to August period, data from the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority show. The euro accounts for 41 percent of the country’s foreign currency earnings, according to Bank of Mauritius data.
“It seems a solution for the European debt crisis, led by default risk by Greece, is in the pipeline,” Swadicq Nuthay, an economist at Port Louis-based Axys Capital Management Ltd., which oversees 5 billion rupees ($173 million) in assets, said by phone today. “We are following international trends. It might well be short-term optimism.”
Buying prices for the dollar ranged from 28.1011 rupees to 28.2715 rupees and the selling price dropped to 29.6198 compared with 29.6298 yesterday, according to exchange rates published 27.09.2011 on the Bank of Mauritius website.