The Indian rupee extended losses for a third day on Thursday and slipped to its lowest close in over two weeks as a stock market slide added to concerns about a strengthening dollar. The partially convertible rupee ended down 0.2 percent at 46.04/05 per dollar, its weakest close since January 6 and below the previous day's 45.93/94. It fell to as low as 46.10 during trade.

"Overseas dollar strength because of Greece's problems and a fall in the stock market hurt sentiment," said a senior trader with a foreign bank. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were at 45.95/46.13, near the onshore spot rate. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were at 46.06 and 46.0625 respectively.

Copyright Reuters, 2010