Rupee down 18 paise vs dollar in late morning

The rupee pared some initial losses, but was still down 18 paise at 66.86 against the American currency in late morning trade on bouts of dollar demand from banks and importers amid weak domestic market.
The rupee opened lower by 20 paise at 66.88 per dollar from Friday's close of 66.68 per dollar at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.
The domestic unit hovered in range of 66.95 and 66.85 per dollar during the morning deals before quoting at 66.86 per dollar at 1025 hrs.
At one point, the rupee was trading at 66.93, down 25 paise against the dollar in early trade.

Meanwhile, the dollar index was trading down 0.02 per cent at 95.27 against a basket of six currencies in early trade.
Overseas, the dollar began the week on the back foot as a bout of risk aversion underpinned the yen, though losses were limited as the US currency garnered some support on renewed talk of a possible rate hike by the Federal Reserve as early as this month.
The safe-haven yen benefited from a broad drop in equities with Nikkei slipping to a two-week low.
Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading down by 388 points or 1.35 per cent to 28,409.25 at 1025 hrs.