The Indian rupee strengthened on Wednesday as exporters sold dollars to book profit, but further gains were capped by local share losses and decent dollar buying by importers and oil refiners. The partially convertible rupee closed at 46.49/50 per dollar, off a high of 46.48, but still 0.4 percent stronger than its close of 46.66/67 on Tuesday.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts closed at 46.49/59, marginally weaker than the onshore spot rate. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX closed at 46.51 and 46.52 respectively, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $5.1 billion.