Indian rupee holds steady

The rupee ended level with the previous session's one-year closing low on Thursday as importers, wary of the firm trend in the dollar, continued their purchases of the US currency.
Traders said some late unwinding of long dollar positions ahead of the European Central Bank's interest rate meeting had, however, helped the rupee recover from the day's lows.
The partly convertible rupee finished unchanged at 45.29/30 per dollar, after recovering from a 45.345 session low. It last closed lower on November 3, 2004. The rupee hit an 11-month intra-day low of 45.41 on October 19.
"For most of the session, what we saw was good buying interest from importers who are clearly concerned about the dollar's strength overseas, especially against the yen," a trader at a state-run bank said.
"But towards close there was some long liquidation as no one wants to also sit long dollars ahead of the ECB's comments, which many think may help the euro gain some ground versus the dollar."
In European trade, the euro held steady versus the dollar, fetching about $1.2062, as investors waited to see if the ECB would maintain its hawkish tone at its interest rate meeting.
Analysts do not expect the ECB to raise borrowing costs on Thursday. But they will be closely watching President Jean-Claude Trichet's news conference at 1330 GMT to see if a rate hike could be on the cards soon, which could boost the euro.
The single currency is well in the middle of the previous month's trading range. This compared with this year's low of $1.1866 set in July and last year's record high of $1.3667.
The dollar has steadily gained this year on the back of a widening yield advantage, which was further raised with Tuesday's interest rate increase by the US Federal Reserve.
The Fed raised the fed funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 4.0 percent, the highest in more than four years, and signalled it will continue to keep raising to head off inflation.
The dollar's firm trend along with worries about a widening Indian trade deficit and foreign capital outflows from local stocks have weighed on the rupee, which slipped one-third of a percent on Wednesday after shedding 2.5 percent in October.