MUMBAI, March 9 Reuters The Indian rupee rose against the U.S. currency on Thursday, supported by dollar inflows and the underlying positive momentum, traders said.

The rupee was at 81.8575 to the U.S. dollar by 1022 a.m. IST compared with 82.0550 in the previous session.

The rupee has not been impacted by the change in the repricing of what the Federal Reserve is likely to do at this month39;s meeting. The local currency is marginally higher than what it was before Fed Chair Jerome Powell39;s hawkish comments.

On the back of Powell39;s comments, the odds of the Fed reverting to a 50basis point bps rate hike at this month39;s meeting have jumped to nearly 70. The Fed peak rate expectations have reached 5.66.

It is to be expected that the rupee will do better than the rest of Asia when the dollar index rallies, but it is surprising to see this kind of resilience at near to 82, a spot trader at a private sector bank said.

Dollar inflows are helping negotiate the renewed Fed concerns, they added.

Indias March fiscal yearend may be an underlying factor helping the rupee, according to traders. India sees increased capital inflows in March, possibly related to FDI and intercompany loans, Nomura pointed out in a note released late last month.

Most other Asian currencies were slightly lower for the day, weighed by worries over the Fed39;s stance. Powell on Wednesday reaffirmed his message of higher and potentially faster interest rate hikes and noted that a decision would…