The Indian rupee slipped to a six-week low on Monday weighed by persistent dollar demand from importers for oil payments as well as defence equipment purchases and weak local shares. The rupee ended at 49.835/845 to the dollar, after dipping to 49.9550, a level last seen on January 25, Thomson Reuters data showed. The currency closed at 49.50/51 on Friday.
The one-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were at 50.28. 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 ended around 50.16, on a total volume of $4.7 billion.