Wednesday, April 5 2006 11:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The rupee today (Apr 5, 2006) rebounded by eight paise against the US currency before reacting negatively on fears of apex bank intervention even as global oil prices remained high amid weak dollar in overseas markets.

In quietly active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market here, the Indian unit opened sharply up at Rs 44.63/65 per dollar against yesterday's close of Rs 44.71/72 a dollar but later turned weak and was quoted at Rs 44.68/69 in late morning dealings.

Initially, the rupee derived strength from weak dollar overseas and robust foreign portfolio investments inflows, forex dealers said.

The dollar fell to 10-week low against euro in overseas markets yesterday.

"However, the sudden negative reaction was attributed to high world oil prices, which closed at US$ 66.23 per barrel in New York last night," they added.

Possibility of Central bank intervention to infuse rupee inflows into the tight system also affected the rupee rally.