Indian rupee drops

The Indian rupee weakened on Thursday as payments for oil imports picked up, while the dollar's rise after Japan intervened to stem the yen's strength also weighed. At 10:57 am (0527 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 44.4350/4400 per dollar, 0.3 percent weaker than Wednesday's close of 44.31/32.
The one-month onshore forward premium was at 21.25 points from 22.50 on Wednesday, while the three-month was at 64.25 points from 67.75 and the one-year was at 212 points from 217.75. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange was at 44.5950 while on the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange were at 44.5925. Total volume stood at $3.4 billion.