MUMBAI: The Indian rupee recovered from the day's lows on Friday helped by some dollar inflows towards a share-sale by an infrastructure company but losses in the local sharemarket and a stronger dollar overseas limited the rise. India's GMR Infrastructure has raised $315 million in a share sale to mostly foreign investors, three sources with direct knowledge of the deal said on Friday. At 2:30 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 44.35/36 per dollar, off a low of 44.5850 and stronger than 44.44/45 at close on Thursday. The rupee had risen as much as 44.18 early on Thursday, revisiting a 19-month high reached earlier this week. The index of the dollar against six major currencies was up 0.1 percent. Most Asian units were also weaker compared to the dollar. Indian shares were choppy on Friday on apprehensions of another interest rate rise next week that could crimp consumer spending but were seesawing later in the session. A Reuters survey showed most economists predict an increase in both the repo and reverse repo rates. Among those expecting a rise, roughly two-thirds predicted 25 basis point increases and one-third foresaw 50 basis point hikes. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoting at 44.39, weaker than the onshore spot rate. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both at 44.3875, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $6.1 billion.

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