Rupee near two-year lows in late morning, down 10 paise vs dollar

Continued capital outflows and heightened worries over the US interest rate hike is taking toll on the rupee

The rupee pared its early losses but was still trading near two-year lows, down by 10 paise to 66.98 against the American currency in the late morning trade on sustained bouts of dollar demand from banks and importers.

Earlier, the domestic unit had opened breaching the 67-mark at 67.09, a fresh two-year low, from its Friday's closing on 66.88 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market.

Later, it trimmed the losses to 66.97 before quoting at 66.98 at 1035 hrs.

It hovered between 67.09 and 66.9650 during morning trade.

Traders said, continued capital outflows and heightened worries over the US interest rate hike this week taking toll on rupee.

Overseas, the US dollar, euro and yen got off to a calm start following a relatively uneventful weekend.

The benchmark BSE Sensex was trading up by 56.50 points or 0.23% to 25,101.16 in late morning trade.