Rupee drops by 19 paise in morning trade

The Indian rupee dropped by 19 paise to 45.30 against the American currency in the morning trade on renewed dollar demand from banks and importers amidst lower dollar in overseas and weak equity markets.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic currency opened lower at 45.22/23 per dollar as against the yesterday's closing level of 45.11/12 per dollar and declined further to 45.30 per dollar before quoting at 45.26/27 per dollar at 1030 hours.

It hovered in a range of 45.20 and 45.30 per dollar in the morning deals.

The Indian benchmark sensex dropped by 113 points or 0.62% in the early trade.

However, in New York market, the Japanese yen touched a new high against the US Dollar yesterday as concerns over the nuclear situation in Japan intensified, weighing heavily on US and European stock markets.