The Indian rupee closed at its highest in three weeks on Friday as banks sold the dollar after oil prices fell further away from record highs, calming concerns of a widening trade deficit. The partially convertible rupee ended at 42.76/77 per dollar, a shade stronger than Thursday's close of 42.81/82 and its strongest close since June 26.
It hit a 15-month low of 43.50 earlier this month. For the week, the rupee ended up a quarter of a percentage point. "Rupee movements are closely mirroring oil prices and there was some importer buying around 42.70 levels, which kept dollar/rupee in a 42.65-42.85 band for the day," said Agam Gupta, head of currency trading at Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai.