The Indian rupee bounced off an intra-day low to end steady on Monday as exporters cashed in on the unit's early fall to sell their remittances.
The Indian unit closed at 45.8750/8850 per dollar, off an early low of 45.9750, and unchanged from Friday.
"The rupee had fallen on customer demand early in the day," said a trader at a state-run bank. "But exporters started to sell dollars." India's import bill has ballooned by 30 percent to $37.14 billion in the first five months of the financial year which started in April.
Oil-related dollar demand, in particular, has climbed because of the surge in global prices. The commodity is India's largest import item, and accounted for about a third of the oil import bill in April-August. Capital inflows have also thinned following a change of government last May and interest rate rises in the United States.
Traders are waiting for the US Federal Reserve's interest rate meeting on Tuesday. The Fed is expected to raise rates by 25 basis points. It would mark the third small rate increase since the Fed began tightening its monetary policy in June.
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