MUMBAI: The Indian rupee steadied on Thursday afternoon tailing the euro's gains and Asian currencies . At 3:12 p.m., the euro was $1.4200 and the index of the dollar against six major currencies was down 0.28 percent at 74.996 points. The partially convertible rupee was at 44.5300/5325, little changed from Wednesday's close of 44.52/53. The unit had pared intraday gains and eased to 44.5575 driven primarily by strong dollar demand from oil and gold importers, traders said. Oil is India's biggest import item and domestic oil refiners are the largest buyers of dollar in local forex market. India is also the world's biggest buyer of bullion and consumes around 700-800 tonnes of the yellow metal annually. The main stock index was up nearly 0.01 percent in choppy trade.

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