The Indian rupee failed to maintain on Thursday’s gain against the dollar and slipped 19 paise to 45.71 per dollar in the early trade, on month-end dollar demand from importers amidst sharp fall in equity markets.

In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit had opened lower at 45.61/63 per dollar as against the overnight closing level of 45.52/53 per dollar.

Forex dealers attributed fall in rupee value to dollar demand from importers to meet their month-end requirements.

The BSE benchmark Sensex on Friday dropped by another 171 points or 0.89 per cent in the early trade in view of selling pressure from operators and investors on the back of capital outflow from foreign funds.