MUMBAI: Cutting three sessions of rise, the rupee on Tuesday fell by four paise against the dollar on month-end demand for the US currency as well as weakness in local equity markets despite a weak dollar overseas.
In narrow but two-way trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, the domestic unit resumed lower at 48.23/24 a dollar from its overnight close of Rs 48.16/17 a dollar.
Forex dealers said importers, mainly oil refiners, were seen purchasing dollars for their month-end import payments, putting some pressure on the rupee.
The rupee was later trapped in a range of 48.13 and 48.3050 a dollar before ending at 48.20/21.
The Indian benchmark Sensex ended lower by 43.10 points or 0.28 per cent while Asian indices closed in the green and European markets were trading weak in afternoon deals.
Dealers further said investors, however, remained sidelined ahead of the announcement of the Reserve Bank's quarterly review of monetary policy.
But after the announcement, the dealers termed it a non-event because the apex bank kept the key interest rates unchanged and increased the inflation forecast to five per cent by end March 2010 from earlier four per cent.
The dollar weakened against the euro and other major currencies in Asian trade today.
Source : The Economic Times