RTRS: Indian rupee falls 0.7pct on weak stocks, dlr demand
By Swati Bhat
MUMBAI, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee fell 0.7 percent on Monday on heavy demand for dollars from a large company and worries a stock market slide would accelerate foreign fund withdrawals.
The partially convertible rupee closed at 49.34/36 per dollar, weaker than 49.01/03 at close on Friday.
"There was only one major customer who was buying dollars today," said Madhusudan Somani, associate director (financial markets) at Yes Bank.
He said the market was illiquid and the bid-ask offers were wide, with people unwilling to take large positions.
"Even a small flow is causing the dollar-rupee to move quite a bit. The near-term pressure on the rupee would continue," Somani said.
Indian shares .BSESN fell 1 percent to their lowest close since late October, taking losses over four days to 11.8 percent as investors worried about how companies would be hit by a deteriorating global economy. See [.BO]
The rupee, which had slumped to a record low of 50.29 on Oct. 27, climbed to 48.78 in early trade on a series of measures by the central bank on the weekend to attract fresh foreign money into the banking system and prop up the struggling rupee.
But foreign fund outflows as the stock market fell reversed the rupee's rise. Foreigners have so far this year sold a net $12.9 billon of Indian shares after buying a record $17.4 billion last year.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts PNDF were quoting at 49.79/94, weaker than the onshore spot rate, indicating a bearish outlook for the currency.
On Saturday, the Reserve Bank of India took measures to improve liquidity and help exporters, including an increase of the interest rate ceiling on deposits of non-resident Indians with local banks. [ID:nSP373697] (Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)