The rupee snapped a four-session slide and bounced back from the previous session's 15-month closing low on Tuesday, helped by robust foreign investment in local stocks, dealers said.
Traders said foreign subscriptions toward a $1.8-billion share offering by ICICI Bank, India's No 2 lender, and possibly inflows from an investment by a British telecom company in an Indian service provider bolstered the flagging rupee, which has lost about 6 percent this year.
The partially convertible rupee, ended at 46.18/19 per dollar, up from Monday's close of 46.32/33 - its lowest finish since early September 2004.
The rupee fell 0.9 percent in four trading sessions as an opportunity to earn about 0.20-0.25 rupees by selling the US currency in the one-to-three-month segment in the offshore rupee non-deliverable forward market fuelled demand for the dollar in the local spot market.
Foreign fund inflows of more than $8.8 billion into Indian stocks since early January have cushioned the rupee's decline this year.