The Indian rupee hit a 17-month low at 44.20/23, 28 paise cheaper from its last close against the greenback, during morning trading today on heavy dollar demand from importers amid weak equity markets.
In fairly active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the domestic currency opened lower at 44.20/23 a dollar from its last weekend's close of 43.92/93 a dollar as oil refiners stepped dollar purchases after global crude oil prices surged in Asian trade.
The rupee later recovered to 44.14/15 a dollar in late morning deals.
The local unit had last touched this level on March 14 last year when it closed at 44.2450/2525 against dollar.
Forex dealers said there was heavy dollar demand from oil companies following a rise in global crude prices by nearly $1 to $116.40 a barrel in Asian trade today.
They said the intervention by Reserve Bank could not be confirmed but some state-owned banks were believed to be selling dollars at higher levels.
Meanwhile, the Indian benchmark Sensex fell back by 108 points at 1030 hrs, while Asian indices were trading sharply lower during morning trading.
