The Indian rupee gave up steam to end lower on Friday weighed by weak shares, lower Asian peers and dollar demand from oil importers, with the dollar's recovery from earlier lows aiding the fall. Dealers expect the rupee to resume its appreciation boosted by robust foreign fund inflows towards imminent share sales. So far since September, the rupee has risen 6 percent on strong capital inflows.
The partially convertible rupee ended at 44.42/43 per dollar, weaker than 44.195/205 at close on Thursday when it hit 44.125, its strongest since September 8. It moved in a narrow 44.3-44.5 band intra-day. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 44.56, weaker than the onshore spot rate.
In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, MCX-SX and United Stock Exchange ended at 44.48, 44.4775 and 44.4775 respectively, with the total traded volume on the three exchanges at about $7.3 billion.