The Indian rupee started the final month of the fiscal year on a weak note on Thursday as a lack of interest by foreign investors in the government's sale of shares in Oil and Natural Gas Corp dampened expectations of a pickup in capital inflows. The rupee snapped a 2-day rise to close at 49.21/22 to the dollar, down from Wednesday's close of 49.0050/0150, after moving in a band of 49.045-49.245.
Dollars were bought around the 49.14/15 level for oil and defence-related payments, dealers said. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were at 49.20. 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 49.54, on a total volume of $3.1 billion.