(Reuters) - The 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.
(Reporting by Aditya Phatak; Editing by Rajesh Pandathil)
