Rupee was down by 16 paise today in early trade vying against the US Dollar on the Interbank Foreign Exchange. Continued capital outflows increased and importers of the US currency had witnessed excess demand causing the fall in the value of the Indian currency.

Further more to hurt the sentiments of the Rupee value, Dollar gained over the Euro in the overseas market adding to the pressure building on rupee value.

With more outward movement of capital from the foreign funds, as the dealers said, rupee had a diminutive opening today in early trade.

Speaking of trade, in the stock market, the BSE Benchmark Sensex fared 173 points lower than yesterday in the early trade. This is another contributing factor to the weakening value of the Gandhi-bearing notes. Sensex was almost 0.92 percent down at 18,682.70 points in early trade today.

It is yet to recover from a three week low that the rupee hit yesterday after being down by 17 paise to USD which was pegged at 54.43 yesterday.

(AW- Anil)