Strong dollar overseas and expectations of more capital outflows in the wake of uncertain local equities weighed on the rupee, a dealer said.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit touched a high of 52.55 in early trade on firm local stocks and dollar selling by exporters.
However, the rupee soon started losing and immediately fell to below 53-level of 53.03 on weakness in equities amid firm dollar overseas.
Dollar demand from importers also kept the rupee under pressure. It later ended at 52.96/97, a net fall of 0.44 per cent.
The BSE benchmark Sensex, which was trading in positive terrain till fag-end, closed down by about 17 points.
The dollar index, consisting of six major currencies, was up by nearly 0.5 per cent ahead of US private-employment data while New York crude oil was trading below USD 106 a barrel in European market today.
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