Rupee breaches 51-mark against a dollar

Mumbai, Feb 27: Sliding for the fifth day in a row, the Indian rupee today breached the 51-mark for the first time ever against the greenback as the local currency lost 66 paise on sustained strong demand for the US dollar from foreign banks and oil importers amid weak stock markets.

Dealers in foreign exchange said that the stronger dollar abroad gave an opportunity to the foreign banks to buy American currency in the local market and sell it in offshore non-deliverable forward contracts for immediate profits.

In the overseas market, the dollar gained against its major rival euro but slipped against Asian competitor yen.

The rupee yesterday only set a fresh low record of 50.46 on sudden surge in demand for dollar. The previous low record of the domestic currency was recorded on last December 2 when it touched the intra-day high of 50.60. Including today's fall of 66 paise, the rupee had slumped by a whopping 151 paise or 3.04 per cent in the straight past five sessions.

Continued selling by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) in equity markets also weighed against the rupee. They have pulled out nearly USD 1.6 billion in the current calender year so far, dealers said. Weakness in equity markets also put pressure on domestic unit, they added. PTI