Indian rupee hits three-week low

The Indian rupee hit a three-week low on Friday on persistent demand for dollars by oil importers, while a subdued response to the government's sale of shares in Oil and Natural Gas Corp was taken an indication that foreign inflows may weaken. The rupee closed at 49.50/51 to the dollar after hitting 49.56, its weakest since February 10. It closed at 49.21/22 on Thursday. The weekly loss was the first in three weeks.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were at 49.96. In the currency futures market, the most-traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange all closed around 49.82, on a total volume of $4.1 billion.