The Indian rupee ended Friday weaker, snapping a nine-day rally in which it rose 3.5 percent against the dollar, as the central bank stepped up intervention which it had recently scaled down.
The rupee ended the first trading day of the new fiscal year at 43.7350/7450 per dollar, weaker than a session peak of 43.30 and 0.1 percent down from Wednesday's 47-month closing high of 43.6500/7000.
Traders said recent heavy dollar sales had abated while the central bank had resumed its tight policing of the rupee.
State-run banks, which have acted in the past on behalf of the central bank, had resumed dollar purchases after limiting their activities in recent sessions, they said.
Rupee premiums on forward dollars fell on a flurry of buy-sell swaps by banks covering cancellations of forward contracts by their exporter clients. The annualised premium on the benchmark six-month dollar dropped 20 basis points to 0.68 percent.