The Indian rupee notched up its second consecutive weekly gain on Friday on inflows from a share sale to foreigners by Axis Bank and as investors squared positions ahead of a long weekend. The partially convertible rupee ended at 48.13/48.14 per dollar, a shade above Thursday's close of 48.15/16. For the week, it rose 0.7 percent. On Thursday, the rupee had climbed to 47.92, its highest since August 11.
"With this Axis Bank deal, nobody wants to carry a long dollar/rupee position into next week and there is some unwinding taking place," said a senior trader at a foreign bank. Foreign fund inflows of nearly $10 billion in 2009 have helped the rupee bounce back from a record low of 52.2 hit in early March.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoting at 48.14/24. In the currency futures market the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX closed at 48.1625 and 48.1525, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at a normal $2.5 billion.