Wednesday, July 19 2006 11:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: After the overnight attempted rally, the rupee once again turned weak against the US currency and today fell to more than three years' low during morning trading following a sharply higher dollar overseas.

In quiet trade at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market, the rupee opened seven paise lower at Rs 46.77/79 per dollar from overnight close of Rs 46.70/71 a dollar and later dipped further to a low of Rs 46.85/86 per dollar in late morning deals.

The activity was at a low ebb with very few deals, forex dealers said adding the main reason for rupee's slide was the dollar's firmness in global markets.

The dollar ended sharply higher on Tuesday in New York, as the market prepared for U.S. consumer inflation data.

A smart rally in global equity markets including India failed to mitigate the rupee's fall against dollar, they added.