Re weakens on talk of refiners buying more dollar

The rupee fell the most in two weeks on speculation refiners stepped up dollar purchases to pay for costlier crude oil imports .

The local currency lost 0.3% to 44.49 per dollar in Monday’s trade, paring gains this month to 0.2%, the third-worst performance among the 10 most-traded Asian currencies.

Oil prices in New York have surged 37% in the past six months to $112.67 per barrel , according to data compiled by Bloomberg .

Imports by India, which buys almost three quarters of the petroleum it uses from abroad, climbed to a sevenmonth high of $8.2 billion in February. “The rupee has come under pressure mainly because of dollar demand from importers, particularly oil companies,” said Paresh Nayar, Mumbai-based head of currency and money markets at the Indian unit of FirstRand.

Offshore forwards indicate the rupee will trade at 45.26 to the dollar in three months, compared with expectations of 45.09 at the end of last week.

Forwards are agreements to buy or sell assets at a set price and date. Non-deliverable contracts are settled in dollars.