Thursday, July 13 2006 11:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The rupee continued to weaken today (July 13, 2006) against dollar and closed sharply lower at Rs 46.23/24 per dollar on fairly heavy dollar covering by oil companies.

The trade inflows and a strong turnaround in equity market failed to have any desired impact on market sentiment.

In very quite trade, at the interbank foreign exchange (FOREX) market here, the Indian unit remained range bound after opening weak at Rs 46.25/26 per dollar due to poor attendance, largely affected by the serial bomb blast in Mumbai last evening. The Rupee had ended at Rs 46.1650/1750 per dollar.

The terror strike did not have any visible impact on the rupee-dollar movements. But many dealers remained absent during the day, a leading foreign dealer said.

Banks were seen buying dollars in fairly good quantity on behalf of oil companies for their import payments. Consistent dollar demand from state owned bank exerted pressure on the rupee, despite good trade inflows and a strong 316 points rally in equity markets, commented a dealer from private bank.

The Reserve Bank of India today maintained the reference rate for the US dollar at Rs 46.21 per dollar. The reference rate for the pound was fixed at Rs 85.3591 per pound from Rs 85.0680, while the bank fixed the reference rate for the euro at Rs 58.99 per euro from Rs 58.80 and for yen the rate was fixed at Rs 40.40 per 100 yen from Rs 40.47.