MUMBAI: The rupee was largely steady in afternoon trade on Thursday in line with the domestic share market and traders were closely watching the dollar's moves against majors for further direction.
At 1:15 pm, the partially convertible rupee was at 44.99/45.01 per dollar, off a high of 44.94, but still stronger than 45.11/12 at close on Wednesday. Dealers said there was dollar demand from importers.
Oil is India's biggest import and refiners are the largest buyers of dollars in the local currency market. The index of the dollar against six major currencies was down 0.2 per cent. Most Asian units were stronger compared to the dollar.
Shares were trading up 0.7 per cent taking cues from firmer world markets. Traders said they would watch April inflation data on Friday for cues on likely RBI policy moves.
The wholesale price index probably rose 9.5 per cent in April from a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll of 21 economists. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were at 45.03, 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 45.0050, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at just over $3.9 billion.
