Mumbai, Aug. 26: The rupee today slipped to a 17-month low, below the 44-mark, against the dollar in intra-day trade. However, by the end of the day it managed to recover most of the losses, possibly because of an intervention by the Reserve Bank of India.

After hitting an intra-day low of 44.16 per dollar, the rupee ended the day at 43.86, weaker by six paise over the last close of 43.79 to a dollar.

Forex analysts said the weakness in the Indian currency was because of heavy demand for the US greenback from state-owned oil companies. While India imports nearly 60 per cent of its oil requirements, oil companies usually buy dollars at the month-end for their import payments.

The rupee today opened sharply lower at 43.99, and dipped below the psychological 44-mark to hit a day’s low of 44.16.

After rising around 12 per cent last year against the US greenback, the rupee has lost around 10 per cent against the dollar so far this year. The slide has largely been attributed to the falling stock markets where foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been net sellers. FIIs have sold more than $7 billion of domestic stocks so far this year after making record purchases last year.

Analysts expect the rupee to be under pressure in the near term with crude prices likely to remain volatile and FIIs shunning equities.

Though the rupee is under pressure, dealers say, dollar supply from exporters helped the Indian currency to recover. According to them, the RBI was seen buying dollars aggressively near the 44.15-mark which helped in recovery.