Rupee slips past 66 per dollar in early trade

The Indian rupee pulled back below the 66 per dollar mark after opening with over 0.5 per cent cut on Monday. The partially convertible rupee traded at 65.84 as of 09.30 a.m. as against Friday's close of 65.70.

It had earlier slipped to 66.12 against the greenback in early trade. The rupee tracked weakness in the offshore non-deliverable forward markets but traders expect some recovery tracking other Asian currencies and domestic shares. The one-month offshore non-deliverable forward contract was trading at 66.87.

The Sensex traded with around 1 per cent gains, while the Nifty edged above the key 5,500 levels providing support to the currency.

The decline comes after two days of strong gains. On Friday, the rupee had posted its biggest monthly gain in at least 18 year as aggressive Reserve Bank intervention and positive local and regional cues helped.

Despite gains, the rupee fell 3.8 per cent last week, its worst weekly performance since the week to September 23, 2011.