Mumbai: The rupee weakened early on Monday weighed by the dollar's rise versus major currencies and other Asian units, with traders awaiting the domestic sharemarket open for further direction.
At 9:02 am the partially convertible rupee was at 46.53/54 per dollar, weaker than 46.40/42 at close on Friday. On Thursday, the rupee had risen as high as 46.22, its strongest since Sept.ember 26, 2008.
The US dollar held above recent 14-month lows against a basket of currencies on Monday as traders trimmed some of their short dollar positions on prospects that U.S. interest rates will move up earlier than expected.
All Asian currencies were weaker compared to the dollar.
The Morgan Stanley index of Asian stocks ex-Japan was down 0.5 percent while the Nifty India stock futures traded in Singapore were little changed, suggesting a flat to lower start to the local market.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, October 12, 2009, 09:37