UMBAI, July 31 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee INR=IN edged higher on Friday pulling further away from one-week lows touched in the previous session as gains in Asian shares raised expectations for capital inflows into the local market. * At 9:03 a.m. the partially convertible rupee was at 48.24/25 per dollar, stronger than its close of 48.35/36 on Thursday, when it had dropped to as low as 48.58 during trade, its weakest since July 22. * Global stocks rallied and oil surged more than 5 percent on Thursday as solid corporate results worldwide and encouraging economic data boosted sentiment that had turned skittish earlier in the week. [ID:nN3067300] * Nifty stock futures SINc1 in Singapore were up 1.3 percent, pointing to a firm start in the local market. The Morgan Stanley index of Asian stocks outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 1.5 percent. * Dealers said they would watch out for dollar demand from oil refiners on the last day of the month, when demand tends to peak as importers need to make payments. (Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Prem Udayabhanu)

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