The Indian rupee ended higher on Wednesday, helped by possible dollar inflows into equities, while traders waited for the monetary policy outcome from the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday.

The rupee ended at 82.5475 to the U.S. dollar, compared with 82.6050 in the previous session.

"The market is relatively calm ahead of the RBI policy decision," said Dilip Parmar, research analyst at HDFC Securities, adding that likely foreign flows into equities helped the rupee during the day.

"The trend is still on the bullish side for the USD/INR," Parmar said.

Unless the central bank moves significantly away from expectations of a status quo on rates, the policy is unlikely to have much impact on the Indian currency, said Srinivas Puni, managing director at QuantArt Market Solutions.

The RBI policy will be followed by the U.S. Federal Reserve policy outcome next week, which analysts feel will provide an outlook for the dollar.

The dollar index on Wednesday stood firm at 104.01.

The odds of a rate hike at the June 13-14 meeting have dropped to nearly 22% following weak U.S. manufacturing and services data and relatively less hawkish comments by two Fed officials before the quiet period. (Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami)