The Indian rupee was pushed to its lowest in more than a month by suspected central bank intervention on Monday, though dollar purchases by oil companies and repatriation of profits by overseas investors also weighed, dealers said.
The rupee ended at 39.800/805 per dollar, its weakest since October 23, and slipping from Friday's finish of 39.71/72. It had hit 39.16 earlier this month, its highest since March 1998. "The RBI seems to like getting the last word every day," said a dealer with a foreign bank, referring to the Reserve Bank of India, that is widely suspected to have intervened heavily against the rupee in late deals.
The RBI bought nearly $52 billion in the first nine months of 2007 in a bid to temper the rupee's ascent, and traders said it has been active in October and November. The local currency bucked a 2.1 percent rise in local stocks, with some foreign funds selling the local unit to repatriate profits before the end of the year, dealers said.
Foreigners have sold more than $1.2 billion worth of Indian shares so far this month, after buying $4.3 billion in October, trimming their net buying to about $16 billion so far in 2007.
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