The rupee slid to a one-week low on Tuesday as the central bank stepped up its dollar-buying intervention amid nervous bids for the US currency from local oil refiners eyeing the latest spike in global crude prices. Traders said a clutch of state-run banks who normally act on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had bought dollars right through the session, after the rupee had weakened slightly to 43.45 in the wake of some early buying by oil importers.
The partially convertible rupee weakened by 0.26 percent to end at 43.5300/5350 per dollar, its lowest close since 43.5475/5525 on July 25. "The state-run banks that operate for the RBI were there for most of the day, absorbing all the supplies and making it a fairly one-sided market," a trader at a state-run bank said.