In a dramatic turnaround, the rupee, after making good steep early losses, on Friday ended higher by 18 paise to 48.58/60 against the greenback on heavy dollar sell-off offshore in non-deliverable forward (NDF) contracts.

It snapped a three-day losing streak. In fairly active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local unit opened lower at 48.90/92 and crossed the 49 mark after a week to an intra-day low of 49.07 per dollar triggered by lack of greenback supplies following poor attendance due to New Year Holidays overseas.