Mumbai: Weakness in Asian stock markets weighed on the Indian rupee as it fell further by two paise to 40.1650/1750 against the greenback in late morning deals.

In dull trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened lower at 40.17/18 per dollar from overnight close of 40.1450/1550 and remained stable at 40.16/17 in late morning deals.

Bearish trend in local equity markets was the main factor to push the rupee downwards. The benchmark Sensex was down by another 82 points at 10.30 am while most of the Asian indices also exhibited feeble trend this morning on the back of fall on Wall Street.

Poor economic data and concerns over the bank earnings sent US stocks lower yesterday. Month-end dollar demand mainly from oil refiners also affected the rupee sentiment.

But expectations of more capital inflows, as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their buying spree for the past four sessions, and weak dollar overseas might help the rupee to breach 40-mark in near future, analysts said.

Meanwhile, the global crude oil prices jumped sharply to above 105 dollars after weaker-than-expected stockpile figures in the United States, the world's biggest energy consumer.

New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, jumped 4.01 dollars to 105.23 dollars per barrel.
Source : PTI