MUMBAI: The rupee is one of the best performing currencies in Asia in the current financial year despite global uncertainties, prompting dealers to give the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the finance ministry credit for astute management of the foreign exchange market.The rupee has posted a total return of 1.04% in the period, ranking it fourth in Asia behind the Indonesian rupiah, the Japanese yen and Singaporean dollar. It’s done better than the Chinese yuan, the sixth-best currency with a 0.24% return, according to Bloomberg data. Total returns include the spot exchange rate and interest income.“Full credit goes to RBI governor for maintaining the rupee’s competitiveness while curbing undue intraday volatility,” said KN Dey, executive director, Mecklai Financial. “Speculative bets have clearly reduced this year compared to a year earlier,” he said.“There have also been no comments, either from the government or RBI, that have spooked the markets unnecessarily unlike in the past,” Dey said. Under governor Raghuram Rajan, the RBI has intervened in the currency futures market, which has also helped to check volatility, dealers said.The RBI doesn’t comment on market interventions, which generally take place through state-run banks. In 2013, the most turbulent year for the exchange rate, then finance minister P Chidambaram had pegged the rupee’s “right value” at 59-60 to the dollar. Such commentary , according to dealers, gave ammunition to those betting on the currency, leading to wild market swings. The financial markets were also confused by what were regarded as monetary policy flipflops that led to cuts and increases in policy rate. The rupee hit a record low of 68.85 to a dollar in August 2013 as emerging markets everywhere took a hit amid talk of the US Federal Reserve unwinding its quantitative easing programme.After Rajan took over in September that year, the central bank laid out a path of anchoring retail inflation over a period of time, all the way to 4% by January 2018. So far, it’s on course to meeting its targets, thus enabling an accommodative policy stance and a reduction in interest rates , which will serve to lower borrowing costs and spark growth in corporate balance sheets.So far in this fiscal year, which ends on March 31, the local unit has lost 6.6% to the dollar versus 4.4% in the preceding year. The difference points to a relatively stable exchange rate as the rupee lost as much as 10.33% in FY14.“Relentless pursuit of real rates by keeping inflation expectation low and smart forex management have supported the rupee’s move this year,” said Anindya Banerjee, associate vice president for currency derivatives at Kotak Securities. “A stable political backdrop and reform agenda have also played their part. Unlike other EM (emerging market) currencies, our exchange rates have never seen wild swings this year."Overseas investors have sold a net Rs 21,362 crore of Indian securities in FY16 so far, versus Rs 2.77 lakh crore net invested a year ago, according to depository NSDL.“There was nothing wrong with India’s macro fundamentals but it was the external global factors,” said Sandeep Nayak, CEO, Centrum group. “Sovereign funds were seen booking profits to make good their losses incurred in other countries due to the dip in oil prices.”Crude oil prices dropped to as low as $29 a barrel from a high of $85 a year ago during the period.