The rupee was barely changed on Monday as the central bank was seen intervening through the session buying dollars to stem a rise in the Indian unit, traders said. The partially convertible rupee ended at 39.28/29 per dollar, little changed from the previous close of 39.28/285 and not far from a decade-high of 39.16 hit in November.
"The RBI was seen protecting the dollar around 39.2825. It tried to weaken the rupee, but the foreign inflows remained strong," a trader with a state-run bank said, referring to the Reserve Bank of India. The intervention should continue this week, traders said, on expected flows into an initial public offering by Reliance Power that opens on Tuesday to raise up to $3 billion in India's largest-ever IPO.