The rupee recouped from its morning losses against the American currency and ended barely steady at 66.55 on mild selling of dollars by banks and exporters in view of recovery in the domestic equity market.

The rupee opened lower at Rs 66.59 as against Wednesday's level of Rs 66.55 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market in Mumbai on Thursday and moved down further to 66.6150 on initial dollar demand from banks and importers.

However, it recovered from initial losses to 66.45 on selling of dollars by banks and exporters on the back recovery in equity market before finishing at 66.55, showing no change from Tuesday's close.

The domestic unit hovered in a range of 66.45 and 66.61 per dollar during the day.

The dollar index was up 0.38 per cent against a basket of six global currencies in the late afternoon trade.

Meanwhile, the RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.5105 and euro at 76.3807.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee moved up further against the pound sterling to finish at 96.20 from 96.54 on Wednesday.

It also looked up against the euro to 76.00 from 76.53 per Euro.

The domestic currency also hardened further against the yen to 62.03 per 100 yens from 62.36.