MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee edged higher on Friday after three successive days of falls, supported by higher local shares and as the dollar again faltered versus major currencies.
At 10:25 a.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 47.08/10 per dollar, stronger than its previous close of 47.20/21. On Wednesday, the rupee rose to as much as 46.75, its highest since Nov. 5 last year.
"There is good two-way interest, there is some demand from state-run banks around 47.10, but looks like customer demand more than intervention," a senior dealer with a foreign bank said.
The Reserve Bank has been buying dollars via state-run banks in recent sessions to prevent sharp appreciation in the rupee, which has also prompted importers to cover their positions around 47 to 47.10 rupees, dealers said.
Losses in the dollar also helped the rupee.
The dollar inched down against a basket of major currencies, with investors shifting money to higher-yielding currencies on the view that the recession hitting the world's major economies is easing.
The BSE Sensex was trading about 0.5 percent higher after upbeat U.S. data renewed hopes the global economic crisis was waning, but trading may be choppy as investors take profits on a sharp three-month rally.
Much of the rise in the rupee from its record low of 52.2 in early March has been fuelled by foreign funds, who have bought more than $6 billion of shares since mid-March after pulling out about $13 billion in 2008.
"In the short term, the rupee may consolidate, as much of the post-election hopes have been priced in," Sebastien Barbe, an economist with Calyon Bank, wrote in a note.
