MUMBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee was expected to open little changed on Friday - its last trading day of the year - as the dollar remained rangebound and after domestic data showed the current account deficit widened further.

The rupee was seen around 82.78-83.85 per dollar in early trades, compared to its previous close of 82.7975.

The rupee is eyeing losses of around 11% this year and is the worst-performing Asian currency so far. Over the past two weeks, it traded in narrow ranges, but quite near its all-time low of 83.29.

One of the reasons the rupee underperformed is the country's elevated current account deficit (CAD), owing to a higher trade deficit.

For the September quarter, CAD widened to $36.40 billion, its highest in more than a decade as high commodity prices and a weak rupee increased the country's trade gap. As a percentage of GDP, it was 4.4%, the highest since mid-2013.

"On balance, we believe India's external account is looking far better now than earlier," economists at ICICI Bank wrote in a note.

"Downward revision in oil imports shows pressure on merchandise deficit is lower while remittances and services exports are holding up. Thus, we see the rupee trading in a narrow range of 81.50-83.50 in the near term." A muted dollar and CAD likely peaking are some positives for the rupee, but subdued holiday trade will curtail any large movement, said a foreign exchange trader.

The dollar index slipped under 104.00 after data overnight showed U.S. jobless claims increased again.

It was still on track for its best performance in seven years, buoyed by the Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary policy tightening to fight surging inflation at home.

A few more rate hikes are expected in 2023, but most analysts believe the dollar's peak to be over for now.

KEY INDICATORS: ** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at 82.91; onshore one-month forward premium at 14 paisa ** USD/INR NSE Jan futures settled on Thursday at 82.96 ** USD/INR Jan forward premium is 12.3 paisa ** Dollar index at 104.00 ** Brent crude futures at $83.6 per barrel ** Ten-year U.S. note yield at 3.83% ** SGX Nifty nearest-month futures up 0.3% at 18,339 ** As per NSDL data, foreign investors sold $51.6 mln worth of Indian shares on a net basis on Dec. 28 ** NSDL data shows foreign investors bought $144.9 mln worth of Indian bonds on a net basis on Dec. 28

(Reporting by Anushka Trivedi; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)