India central bank likely buying dollars to absorb inflows - traders

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Indian central bank is likely buying dollars via state-run banks to prevent the rupee from appreciating in the wake of inflows, three traders told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Indian rupee was trading at 81.8275 per U.S. dollar, having reached 81.7325 earlier.

The long weekend inflows and the dollar offers from foreign banks are "once again running into a resolute" Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a trader at private sector bank said.

The state-run banks have been consistently on the bid since morning and it is "difficult to put it down to anything" other than the RBI, another trader said.

The dollar index was down 0.2% to 101.92.

(Reporting by Nimesh Vora; Editing by Savio D'Souza)