Rupee tumbles another 25 ps vs dollar

The Indian rupee tumbled by another 25 paise to cross the 49-mark to more than two-week low of 49.07/08 against the greenback in late morning deals, following distinctly weak equity markets due to a disappointing interim budget.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit resumed lower at 49.00/01 a dollar and declined further to quote at 49.07/08 in late morning deals, from the previous close of 48.82/83.

It moved in a range of 48.96 and 49.09 a dollar. It had lost 15 paise on Monday.

Forex dealers attributed further fall in the rupee value to sluggish trend in equity markets that might force foreign funds to withdraw their investments from the capital markets.

The Indian benchmark Sensex (^BSESN : 16632.01 -222.92) was down by a whopping 190 points, or 2.04 per cent, at 1015 hours, while most of the Asian indices were also trading lower by an average of 0.52 per cent to 2.92 per cent in early trade.

Dissatisfaction over the interim budget, which was presented on Monday without any financial measure to support the weakening economy, also weighed on the rupee.