Indian rupee extend losses on persistent dollar demand

Indian rupee extending theprevious session somber mood slid to a fresh 28-month low on Friday owing tothe persistent demand for the American currency from banks and importers amid afirm dollar sentiment in overseas markets. Weak Indian equity markets coupledwith that of regional currency also spooked the sentiment of the Indiancurrency. Meanwhile, traders also watched out for any possible move by thecentral bank to stem the unit's fall. RBI deputy governor Subir Gokarn, saidthat any intervention would be only be to smoothen volatility and not to targetany particular level. However, some respite has come to the Indian currency inthe way of euro which rose on Friday after slipping to an eight-month low. 

 Finally the rupee ended at 49.42,weaker by 14 paise from its previous close of 49.56 on Thursday. It touched ahigh and low of 49.9000 and 49.0575 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India'sreference rate for the dollar stood at 49.67 and for Euro it stood at 66.98 onSeptember 23, 2011. While, the RBI's reference rate for the Yen stood at 65.10and the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 76.5064. Thereference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai.