The Indian rupee fell to its lowest in a month on Friday as a corporate scandal triggered concerns foreigners may pull out from domestic stocks. At 10:30 a.m. (0500 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 48.97/98 per dollar, 0.3 percent weaker than its Wednesday's close of 48.80/81. In early trade it fell to 49.30, its weakest since Dec. 8. Indian financial markets were closed on Thursday for a local holiday. "The market is spooked by the fallout of the Satyam scandal and there is not much clarity on whether today too would be a bad day for the stocks," a senior dealer at a private bank said. "There is some resistance for the dollar-rupee around 49.25-49.30 levels, so we may see it holding in a 48.80-49.25 range," he said. Shares in Satyam Computer Services (SATY.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) slumped more than 70 percent in early trade, following nearly 80 percent slide on Wednesday after the Indian outsourcer said it had overstated profits for many years. [ID:nBOM394323] Traders were worried the scandal could hit foreign portfolio investment that was showing signs of picking up. Foreign funds bought a net $241 million of shares in the first four trading sessions of the new year, after they had dumped more than $13 billion in 2008. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts PNDF were quoting at 49.17/27, weaker than the onshore spot rate, indicating a bearish near-term outlook for the rupee. India's main stock index .BSESN briefly turned positive after falling more than 2 percent early, but the outlook was clouded by uncertainty. (Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

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