Rupee down on euro zone jitters, local shares drop

The rupee weakened further in afternoon trades on Thursday as deepening worries over the impact of Europe's debt crisis heightened global risk aversion, pushing domestic equities and the euro lower.

* At 1:41 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 49.44/45 per dollar, 0.5% lower than Wednesday's close of 49.18/19. The unit has so far moved in a range of 49.315-49.560.

* The euro was at USD 1.3693, compared with USD 1.3780 at the end of local trade on Wednesday, while the index of the dollar against six major currencies was at 77.317 points versus 76.943 points.

* The euro edged lower on Thursday, hurt by jitters over Greece's plan for a referendum on the euro zone debt deal, with market players seeing the risk of more downside in the next couple of months.

* The BSE Sensex was down over 0.6% led by export-driven technology stocks and fears of foreign fund outflows given European crisis.