The Indian rupee rose on Thursday, ending a holiday-shortened week with its first weekly gain in three, as a revival in global demand for risk prompted foreign banks to sell the greenback, but dollar demand from oil refiners limited bigger gains. "Asian currencies were appreciating and the dollar was getting beaten against other majors, which helped the rupee. But there was persistent demand from oilers," said Vikas Babu Chittiprolu, a senior foreign exchange dealer with Andhra Bank.
"Next week RBI will be watched for direction. A rate cut will surely boost the rupee. I am expecting a 53.20 to 53.95 range until the policy with foreign institutional investor demand for Asian currencies also likely to help the rupee". The partially convertible rupee closed at 53.56/57 per dollar versus its previous close of 53.74/75.
For the week, the unit rose 0.5 percent, snapping two previous weeks of falls. Forex markets will be closed on Friday for the second time this week due to a banking holiday. In the offshore non-deliverable forwards market, the one-month contract was at 53.83 while the three-month was at 54.34. In the currency futures market, the most-traded near-month dollar/rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange all closed at around 53.64 with a total traded volume at $5.98 billion.