MUMBAI, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee held mostly steady in afternoon trade on Tuesday in line with firm stocks and higher regional peers but some month-end demand from refiners and importers limited further gains. * At 2:45 p.m., the partially convertible rupee INR=IN was at 46.81/82 per dollar, slightly above its previous close of 46.84/85. * However, dealers said some month-end dollar demand from refiners and importers limited a further rise in the rupee. * Bank stocks led a rise in Indian shares .BSESN after three days of losses, helped by gains in Asia, but the rally's momentum is not expected to sustain as activity thinned out into the end of the year. [.BO] * The dollar rose further against the yen on Tuesday, hitting a two-month high and keeping pressure on the euro, as year-end unwinding of short positions supported it along with higher Treasury yields. [USD/] * One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts PNDF were quoted at 46.80/90, marginally weaker than the onshore spot rate. * In the currency futures market INRFUTURES, the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were quoting at 46.8425 and 46.8375 respectively, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $2.6 billion. (Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Sunil Nair)

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