* Rupee rises to 1-mth high on unwinding of offshore NDFs * Rupee likely to see further gains, say traders (Updates to early trade) MUMBAI, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee strengthened to its highest in nearly a month on Thursday as an unwinding of long dollar positions in non-deliverable forwards (NDF) prompted banks to sell the U.S. currency in the spot market as well. At 10:47 a.m. (0517 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 48.62/63 per dollar, its strongest since Nov. 13, and 0.9 percent stronger than its previous close of 49.03/04. "Well, stocks do not matter for now. It is pure and simple technical trade. A break below 48.25 targets 47.90 and the NDF as well, as local players are selling dollars for that move," said a senior trader with a private bank. One-month offshore NDF contracts PNDF were quoting at 48.65/80, a shift from having been sharply weaker than the spot rate recently and indicating some short-term strength for the rupee. Indian shares .BSESN opened 0.25 percent higher on Thursday and then bounced between positive and negative. See [.BO]. Dealers said gains in the Korean won also underpinned the rupee sentiment. The South Korean won gained as much as 3.7 percent against the dollar on Thursday after the central bank made a record rate cut to help Asia's fourth-largest economy weather a global recession. See [KRW/]. "Given it's December, no one is looking to aggressively build positions, market is just working on the demand and supply. All banks are running small shorts on the dollar-rupee," a trader with a primary dealership said. "Except for some state-run banks buying dollars, there is no other demand in the market, the trend is lower. We could see the dollar-rupee go further left from here," he added. (Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by John Mair)

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