The Indian rupee dropped for a fifth straight day, weakening to its lowest level in three weeks on Tuesday as heavy dollar demand from oil and defence firms offset inflows into the domestic stock markets. Exporters also refrained from selling dollars at current levels on expectations of further weakness after the central bank disappointed markets by keeping key rates on hold at its policy review. Though the outcome was widely expected, investors had been hoping for a surprise cut in rates.

"Stocks, euro and all other things are positive but the INR is weakening because of strong demand. Once that demand is over, we may see some positive moves in the rupee," said Uday Bhatt, a foreign exchange dealer with UCO Bank. The partially convertible rupee closed at 54.85/86 per dollar, after having dropped as low as 55.0550, its weakest since November 29. The unit had closed at 54.84/86 on Monday. In the non-deliverable forwards market, the one-month contract was at 55.17 while the three-month was at 55.66. 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 closed at around 54.96 with a total traded volume of 5.14 billion.

Copyright Reuters, 2012