Thursday, August 4 2005 11:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Rupee weakened slightly against the US currency early today (Aug 4, 2005) on light corporate dollar demand in mostly quiet and range-bound trade at the Inter bank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

Despite a firm opening at 43.42/43 per dollar the Rupee later dipped 43.45/46 per dollar in late morning deals, lower from Wednesday's close of 43.4350/4450 per dollar.

A weak dollar overseas amid cooling global oil prices gave the Rupee underlying support but dollar demand from oil corporates exerted slight pressure on the Rupee even as foreign fund inflows continued to pour into the equity market, a forex dealer said.

World crude oil prices cooled down US$ 60.84 a barrel in early Asian trade today due to rise in US inventories.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) injected US$ 129 million on Tuesday (Aug 2, 2005), taking the current month tally to over US$ 500 million in just three sessions.

This year's tally is now close to US$ 7 billion at US$ 6.9 billion.

The Rupee rallied smartly yesterday (Aug 3, 2004) on the back of a retreating dollar overseas amidst strong FII inflows.

Traders expect the Rupee to bounce back later in the day because of a lingering weak dollar overseas and robust FII inflows.

Turning to cross currency trades, the Euro was quoted at Rs 53.54/56, Pound Sterling at Rs 77.21/24 and the Japanese Yen (100) at Rs 39.06/09.