The Indian rupee slid to its weakest level in more than two months on Monday on heavy dollar buying from oil importers and other companies, with a steep fall in local shares and a weak euro further dragging. Traders said despite the pressure on the rupee, they believe the central bank did not intervene in the forex market as these demand pressures were seen as cyclical.
The rupee ended at 51.2650/2750 to the dollar, sharply weaker than its previous close of 51.17/18, after dipping as low as 51.4850 - a level last seen on January 16, Thomson Reuters data showed. The one-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were at 51.85. 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 at around 51.3, on a total volume of $5.2 billion.