Mumbai, Sep 11 (PTI) The rupee pared most of its initial losses and settled at 95.54 against the US dollar, down by 2 paise, on Friday, helped by a correction in crude oil prices and suspected RBI intervention.

Forex traders said risk aversion in global markets and elevated crude oil prices are weighing on the rupee, which closed lower for the fifth consecutive session on Friday.

The rupee opened on a negative note but pared some losses on suspected RBI intervention, a slight recovery in domestic stock markets from the day's lows and profit booking in crude oil prices at higher levels, traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 95.70 against the US dollar and fell further to a low of 95.79. However, the local unit later pared losses to hit the day's high of 95.51 before closing down by 2 paise at 95.54 against the American currency.

The rupee depreciated 44 paise to close at 95.52 against the US dollar on Thursday.

"The Indian rupee extended its downward spiral... logging its steepest weekly loss since May 15 amid surging crude oil prices and climbing bond yields," said Dilip Parmar – Senior Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

Persistent geopolitical tensions and sluggish monsoon rainfall continued to weigh heavily on domestic sentiment, dampening the positive momentum generated by the Reserve Bank of India and government support measures, Parmar said.

In the near term, spot USDINR faces resistance at 95.80, with strong support positioned around 95.15, paving the way for a phase of consolidation following the recent sharp upward surge, he added.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 99.13, higher by 0.09 per cent.

"Rupee has continued to weaken for the 4th consecutive session. Recent rupee decline comes despite of RBI support. Key support would be at 50-DEMA (Double Exponential Moving Average) level placed at 95.27 and on the other side, 95.81 would be a crucial resistance to look for," Aamir Makda, Commodity & Currency Analyst, Commodity Technical Research, Choice Broking, said.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading lower by 3.28 per cent at USD 104.10 per barrel in futures trade.

"We expect the rupee to trade with a negative bias on risk-off sentiments in global markets and inflation concerns over elevated crude oil prices. However, any intervention by the RBI may support the rupee at lower levels," said Anuj Choudhary, Research Analyst, Mirae Asset Sharekhan.

Choudhary further noted that traders may take cues from US CPI inflation and consumer sentiment data from the US. USD/INR spot price is expected to trade in a range of 95.45 to 95.90.

On the domestic equities market front, Sensex declined 120.83 points to settle at 74,781.76, while the Nifty fell 79.70 points to close at 23,398.10.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 930.90 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.

Further, India's forex reserves jumped a record USD 44.903 billion to a new lifetime high of USD 785.706 billion during the week ended September 4, the RBI said on Friday. PTI DRR TRB