Updates for market close

By Jaspreet Kalra

MUMBAI, Feb 25 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee ended nearly flat on Wednesday as dollar demand spurred by maturing contracts in the non-deliverable forwards market blunted positive impulses from modest inflows and gains in Asian peers.

Despite expectations of elevated dollar demand related to NDF maturities this week, appetite to wager against the currency has also dulled due to expectations that the Reserve Bank of India will intervene to curb sharp falls.

On the day, the rupee INR=IN closed at 90.9475 against the dollar, nearly unchanged from its close of 90.95 in the previous session.

State-run banks were intermittently spotted selling dollars above the 90.95 mark, a trader at a large private lender said.

"The 90.60–90.80 range continues to act as an important support zone for USD/INR. As long as this area remains intact, the overall trend points to a steady climb toward the 91.20–91.50 levels," said Amit Pabari, managing director at FX advisory firm CR Forex.

Indian equity benchmarks, too, kicked off the day on a strong note, rising nearly 1% before paring gains to end the day modestly higher. The blue-chip Nifty 50 .NSEI rose 0.2%.

Asian currencies were up between 0.2% to 0.5%, with the Chinese yuan rising to a 34-month high on Wednesday. The dollar index, meanwhile, was little changed at 97.8.

Global markets are awaiting the quarterly earnings report from AI chipmaker Nvidia NVDA.O, set to release later in the day. Analysts reckon the firm's heavy weighting in U.S. equity markets means the results could have a spillover impact on global risk appetite as well.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Janane Venkatraman)

((jaspreet.kalra@thomsonreuters.com))