Rupee marginally lower on weak regional stocks

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee opened slightly weaker on Tuesday tracking losses in some regional stock markets but losses in the dollar versus major units prevented a further slide.

* At 9:04 a.m. the partially convertible rupee was at 47.01/02 per dollar, weaker than its Friday's close of 46.96/97. The market was closed on Monday for a local holiday.

* Portfolio flows into local shares are a key driver of the rupee. Foreigners have bought more than $14 billion of local equities so far this year, after being sellers of more than $13 billion in 2008.

* At 0334 GMT, the MSCI index of Asian stocks ex-Japan was trading down 0.3 percent, while the Nifty India stock futures traded in Singapore were down 0.7 percent, both pointing to a lower open in the domestic market.

* The dollar and the yen eased on Tuesday, while the Australian dollar extended gains ahead of a central bank meeting where interest rates are widely expected to be lifted by a quarter of a percentage point.

* The dollar index, a gauge of the U.S. unit's performance versus six majors, was down 0.2 percent.

(Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Sunil Nair)

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