Mumbai, Dec 14: The rupee fell on Monday in line with lower regional peers but the domestic sharemarket open and the monthly inflation data due around noon would be watched for further direction.
* At 9:07 a.m. the partially convertible rupee was at 46.72/73 per dollar, weaker than its close of 46.53/54 on Friday.
* The wholesale price index probably rose an annual 4.14 percent in November, fuelled by accelerating food prices, but this is unlikely to force the Reserve Bank to tighten policy this month.
* Almost all Asian units were weaker against the dollar.
* Dealers predicted a range of 46.40-46.70 for the day and said they would watch local shares for cues on foreign fund flows.
* At 0337 GMT, the MSCI-index of Asian stocks ex-Japan was down 0.9 percent and the Nifty India stock futures traded in Singapore were 0.03 percent lower, indicating a flat to lower start to the local sharemarket.
–Agencies