Mumbai: Breaking straight four weeks of losing string, the Indian rupee rebounded by 39 paise to close the first week of 2012 on a positive note at 52.71/72 against the Greenback in line with smart bounce back in local equities amid sustained dollar selling by exporters and some banks.

Heavy foreign funds inflows, mainly in debt, as well as equity markets too aided the rupee recovery.

The rupee resumed lower at 53.30/31 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market against the last weekend's level of 53.10/11 per dollar and hovered erratically in a range of 52.62 per dollar and 53.40 per dollar, before ending at 52.71/72 per dollar, a gain of 0.73 per cent.

In the last four weeks, the rupee has fallen by a massive 190 paise, or 3.71 per cent.

Fresh selling of dollars by banks and exporters on the back of capital inflows from foreign funds mainly boosted the rupee value against the dollar, a forex dealer said.

According to the data available with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), foreign institutional investors (FIIs) infused over $1 billion in debt markets and pumped in $190 million in equities till January 5.

Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services (India) Pvt. Ltd said, "Rupee dominated greenback as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were buying in Indian debt market."