Rupee drops on weak regional shares

Thu, Nov 5 09:32 AM

Enlarge Photo A man uses an electronic machine to check a currency note at a money exchange...

The rupee eased in early trade on Thursday tracking lower regional sharemarkets, which could prompt foreign investors to repatriate funds from local stocks.

* At 9:10 a.m. the partially convertible rupee was at 47.13/14 per dollar, slightly weaker from 47.05/06 at close on Wednesday.

* Traders said they expected a range of 46.90 to 47.30 during the session.

* Foreign funds have bought more than $14 billion of local equities so far this year, after being sellers of more than $13 billion in 2008. The inflows have been a key factor helping the gains in the stock market and the rupee.

* At 0340 GMT, the MSCI index of Asian stocks ex-Japan was trading down 0.8 percent, while the Nifty India stock futures traded in Singapore were 0.6 percent lower, both pointing to a subdued start to the local market.

* The dollar index, a gauge of the U.S. unit's performance versus six majors, was up 0.3 percent.

(Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Harish Nambiar)

(For more news on Reuters Money visit http://www.reutersmoney.in)

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