The Indian rupee ended near its lowest in seven-weeks on Monday, unable to sustain a boost from the share market turning around early losses and as the dollar lost ground against major currencies. The partially convertible rupee closed at 46.83/84 per dollar from 46.73/74 on Friday. It fell as low as 46.8650, its lowest since December 23, with traders saying a figure of 46.90 reported in afternoon trade was a mis-hit.
"The market was very volatile today. The rupee's weakness was initially held by custodial flows, but with the stock market tanking it followed the weakness, recovering mid-afternoon when globally risk got pushed up," said Nitesh Kumar, an interbank dealer with Development Credit Bank.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were trading at 46.91/47.01, weaker than the onshore spot rate, suggesting a bearish near-term outlook. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX closed at 46.8575 and 46.85 respectively, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $5.4 billion.