The rupee was little changed in afternoon trade on Wednesday as a choppy sharemarket failed to provide clarity on the direction of capital fund flows, but mostly weaker regional peers weighed on sentiment.
At 2:15 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 49.07/08 per dollar, from its previous close of 49.05/06. In early trade, the rupee had dropped to 49.21, its lowest since July 13.
Shares were choppy as uncertainty about the US financial sector dragged down Wall Street overnight and hit investor confidence across Asia.
One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 49.16/26, little weaker than the onshore spot rate.
Most Asian currencies were trading lower compared to the dollar.
In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contract on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were quoting at 49.13 and 49.1325 respectively, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $1.3 billion.
