MUMBAI: The Indian rupee recovered from the day's lows on Monday afternoon closely tracking the local sharemarket which turned positive after having dropped early with losses in the dollar against majors also providing a boost.
At 3:15 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was trading at 46.28/29 per dollar, off a low of 46.44 but still weaker than Friday's close of 46.16/17.
Local shares were trading marginally higher after having dropped more than 1 percent in early trade. Foreign fund investments into local shares are a key driver for the market and the rupee. Foreigners have been net sellers of $2 billion worth of stocks in 11 of the last 12 trading sessions.
The euro edged up against the dollar on Monday, recovering slightly from recent losses, but continued to hover close to seven-month lows, dented by concerns over the fiscal health of some euro zone countries.
At its monetary policy review last Friday, India's central bank lifted the cash reserve ratio, the proportion of deposits that banks must keep with the central bank as cash, by a higher-than-expected 75 basis points and held key interest rates steady.
In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both quoting at 46.3775, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $3.9 billion.
