Losing to the greenback for the fourth day in a row, the Indian rupee today ended at 50.45/47 against the dollar, 15 paise cheaper from its last close amid a fresh slide in local stocks and a cut in key short-term rates.
Dealers at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market said the strong dollar overseas as well as fears of a slowdown in capital inflows also weighed on rupee sentiment.
The domestic currency resumed weak at 50.50/52 a dollar against its previous close of 50.30/31 a dollar and later moved in a range of 50.24 and 50.62 even as the central bank reduced its growth estimate for 2008-09 to 6.5-6.7 per cent and forecast growth of around 6.0 per cent for the current fiscal.
In its annual monetary policy today, the central bank reduced the short-term lending (repo) and borrowing (reverse repo) rates by 25 basis points, paving the way for further lending rates cut by banks for retail and industrial borrowers.
They said oil refiners continued to buy dollars for their monthly import as global prices eased in Asian trade during the day.
