The rupee today gained five paise to close at 61.17 against the dollar on fresh selling of the US currency by exporters, snapping the two-day losing trend.
Signs of sustained capital inflows aided the rupee recovery but weak equities capped the rise to some extent, a forex dealer said.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit commenced strong at 61.01 a dollar from previous close of 61.22 and improved further to a high of 60.90.
The rupee, however, met with strong resistance and fell to 61.19 before settling at 61.17, a rise of five paise from its previous close.
In the previous two days, it had lost 37 paise.
The dollar index was down by 0.31 per cent against its major global rivals.
The BSE benchmark Sensex, meanwhile, dipped by 81.61 points. FIIs injected USD 148.56 million yesterday, as per Sebi data.
"IIP and CPI data were encouraging, leading to gains in the rupee. But gains were short lived as negative stock markets and dollar demand made the rupee depreciate. Today's US retail sales and unemployment claims data will be the key data for the forex markets," said Abhishek Goenka, Founder and CEO, India Forex Advisors.
According to official data released after market hours yesterday, retail inflation eased to 25-month low of 8.1 per cent in February and industrial growth registered a modest growth of 0.1 per cent in January.
The benchmark six-month premium payable in August tumbled to 237.5-239.5 paise from 249-251 paise yesterday.
Far forward contracts maturing in February, 2015 also plunged to 478-480 paise from 489-491 paise.
The RBI fixed the reference rate for dollar at 61.0155 and for the euro at 85.0232.
The rupee dipped to 102.14 against the pound and ended at 85.37 a euro. It softened to 59.62 per 100 Japanese yen.
