MUMBAI, April 12 Reuters The Indian rupee weakened on Friday as the greenback extended recent gains and rose to its highest level in nearly five months, while staterun banks39; dollar sales helped limit losses, traders said.

The rupee closed at 83.4125 against the U.S. dollar, down nearly 0.3 compared with its close at 83.1850 in the previous session.

The local unit logged its steepest intraday decline in three weeks on Friday and was also down 0.1 weekonweek.

The dollar index climbed 0.5 to a peak of 105.85, its highest since midNovember, on bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve would keep interest rates higher for longer.

A strongerthanexpected U.S. consumer inflation print on Wednesday boosted the dollar and U.S. bond yields.

The rupee opened weaker against the dollar on Friday and hovered between 83.36 and 83.4250 during the session.

Staterun banks were mildly selling dollars towards the close of the session, a foreign exchange trader at a foreign bank said. Exporters were also active during the session, helping curb the rupee39;s losses, the trader added.

Most Asian currencies declined on the day, with the Korean won down nearly 0.8 and leading losses.

Meanwhile, dollarrupee forward premiums declined, with the 1year implied yield down 3 basis points bps at 1.63, pressured by elevated U.S. bond yields.

The 1year Treasury yield inched up to 5.18 while the 10year yield was last quoted at 4.54.

The rupee is likely to maintain a negative trend, over the near term…