MUMBAI, Oct 7 Reuters The Indian rupee hovered close to its alltime low on Monday as a host of negative cues were blunted by the central bank39;s stern defence of the currency, while dollarrupee forward premiums slumped after robust U.S. data dashed hopes of aggressive Federal Reserve rate cuts.

The rupee was at 83.9675 against the U.S. dollar as of 1020 a.m. IST, nearly unchanged from its close at 83.9725 on Friday and just shy of its alltime low of 83.9850.

Outflows from local equities, higher oil prices and a stronger dollar have weighed on the rupee since last week but the currency held its ground, largely due to the Reserve Bank of India39;s RBI interventions.

The RBI has likely intervened in the nondeliverable forwards NDF, local spot and currency futures market to help the rupee hold above the 84 handle, traders said.

The open interest on NSE dollarrupee currency futures expiring on Oct. 29 more than doubled to 2.4 billion over the last two trading sessions, signalling intervention by the central bank, a senior trader at a staterun bank said.

The RBI intervened in the NDF market on Friday to support the rupee before the local spot market opened, while traders have also pointed to persistent dollar sales from staterun banks, likely on behalf of the central bank, helping the rupee during local market hours.

We expect the rupee to trade in a narrow range of 83.80 to 84.05 in the short term, Amit Pabari, managing director at FX advisory firm CR Forex, said….