The rupee had gained by eight paise in the last two days from Tuesday's close of 43.59. Opening the day at 43.5450/55, the rupee on Thursday continued to gain strength on the back poll results favouring a BJP-led government at the Centre. The rupee closed at 43.52/53 as against ther previous close of 43.56.

The surprise in dealing rooms - which had discounted any isolatary impact of poll results on the rupee - was of Moody's Investors Service revised country ratings to positive from stable for India's Ba2 ratings on foreign and domestic currency debt. "The forex market had discounted election results... but the move on the part of Moody's came as a pleasantsurprise," a dealer with a European bank said.

``Overnight election result trends showing the BJP in the lead encouraged dollar selling by banks and corporates which gained further momentum after the news that the alliance had won a clear majority,'' said a dealer.

Dealers said banks were unwinding their long dollar positions in the absence of demand for the US currency while exporters resorted to dollar sales which gave the rupee underlying support.