Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Mauritius’s rupee appreciated the most in more than three weeks against the euro.

The currency gained as much as 2.6 percent, its biggest intraday advance since July 28, to 39.8157 per euro and traded 1.9 percent down to 40.0932 at 3:35 p.m. in Port Louis, the capital, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Versus the dollar, the rupee weakened as much as 0.7 percent and traded 0.5 percent up at 27.80.

“The market is very volatile today, driven by a lack of substantial volume trading,” Fabien Gebert, a treasurer at GML, which describes itself is the biggest Mauritian investment company by assets, said by phone. “There might be a kind of wait-and-see attitude from sellers and buyers as end-of-month bill settlements loom, contributing to swings in the rates.”

Europe is the Indian Ocean island nation’s biggest trading partner, with France and Italy buying 22 percent of the country’s exports in June, the Central Statistics Office said today. Tourism, which with textiles is the country’s biggest foreign-currency earner, is driven by visitors from Europe, with a share of 64 percent, the data agency said on Aug. 18.

Mauritius is a net buyer of food and fuels, with 67 percent of its import bills denominated in dollars, according to Bank of Mauritius data.

Buying prices for the dollar were from 27.2413 to 27.41 rupees, while the selling price was 28.7064 per dollar, versus 28.7425 on Aug. 19, according to indicative exchange rates published today on the Bank of Mauritius’s website.

Mauritian stocks retreated for a fourth day, its longest streak of losses since July 21. The 38-member SEMDEX gauge declined 0.3 percent to 1,913.75 at the 1:30 p.m. close, led by Mauritius Commercial Bank, the country’s largest lender by market value.

--Editors: Ana Monteiro, Paul Richardson

-0- Aug/22/2011 11:36 GMT

-0- Aug/22/2011 11:41 GMT

To contact the reporter on this story: Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis via Johannesburg at gbell16@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net