Mumbai: The rupee dropped to a nine-month low against the US currency in late morning deals today and was down 18 paise to 62.14 on sustained dollar demand from importers amid strong greenback overseas.
The Indian unit resumed lower at 62.03 per dollar as against the yesterday's closing level of 61.96 at Interbank Foreign Exchange market.
Later, it depreciated sharply to a nine-month low at 62.22 before paring some of its losses to quote at 61.14 per dollar at 1030 hours.
The rupee hovered in a range of 61.22 and 62.03 per dollar in late morning deals.
Strengthening dollar overseas and higher importers' demand weighed heavily on the rupee movement, dealers said.
In the New York market, the US dollar was trading strong against its major rivals and the Japanese yen slid to a seven-year low as speculators poured into carry trades funded by a tide of super-cheap liquidity from Bank of Japan.
Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading higher by 25 points, or 0.09 percent, to 28,057.83 at 1050 hours.
