MUMBAI: The Indian rupee recovered from its lowest level in 7 weeks on Friday afternoon tracking sharp losses in the dollar versus major currencies but choppy domestic shares continued to weigh. * At 2:45 p.m. the partially convertible rupee was at 45.58/59 per dollar, off the day's low of 45.77, its lowest since Dec. 1, but still weaker than 45.53/54 at close on Thursday. * The dollar index, a measure of the greenback's performance against six major currencies, was down 0.4 percent at 78.495 points. * The euro extended gains against the dollar to briefly hit a fresh two-month high on Friday after Germany's IFO survey showed improving business sentiment in Europe's largest economy. * The 30-share BSE index was trading down 0.2 percent. Traders said demand for dollars from oil companies was also weighing on the rupee. * One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 45.89, 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 the United Stock Exchange were all at 45.6350 with the total traded volume on the three exchanges at an average $5.1 billion.

Source