Rupee falls against US dollar

The Indian rupee continued its slide against the greenback, tumbling by 20 paise in late morning trade in line with a plunge in equity markets amid dollar's weakness overseas.

Weak dollar against its major rival globally normally provides a boost to the local currency but the ailing stocks had adverse impact on the rupee sentiment, forex dealers said.

The rupee opened weak at 40.14/16 a dollar and later hit a low of 40.21 for the first time after September 19, 2007.

The currency was quoted at 40.18/19 a dollar in late morning deals.

The dollar fell sharply against the Euro and the yen in overseas market last Friday due to weaker American stocks and weak US economic data.

Asian markets were down by about 2.0 to 3.0 per cent in morning trading while Indian benchmark Sensex plunged by nearly 3.0 per cent in the first 30 minutes of trading.