Mumbai: The Indian rupee extended gains in afternoon trade on Friday, supported by a more than 1.7% rise in local shares but demand for dollars from oil importers weighed on the local unit.

At 2:15pm, the partially convertible rupee was at Rs48.82/83 per dollar, stronger than the previous close of Rs48.92/93. On Wednesday, the rupee had fallen to Rs49.21, its lowest since 13 July.

The dollar index, a gauge of the US unit’s performance versus six majors, was down 0.2%, helping the rupee, dealers said.

Indian shares extended gains to near 2% on Friday afternoon as investors sought bargains after the market dropped 3.3% over the past four sessions.

Oil companies, the largest consumer of dollars in the local currency market, had stepped up their purchases, preventing the rupees from rising too much, dealers said.

One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoting at Rs48.84/94, weaker than the onshore spot rate.

In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were quoting at Rs48.8925 and Rs48.89 respectively, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $920 million.