The surprime crisis in the United States and the resultant turmoil in global equities continued to cast a shadow over rupee which fell by 47 points to more than two-month low of 41.22 against the US dollar.

Rupee on Thursday resumed below 41 level at 41.02/04 a dollar and fell further to 41.22 a dollar before being quoted at 41.12/13 a dollar in late morning deals.

The Indian currency closed at 40.7450/7550 a dollar on August 14.

The subprime crisis in the US and the resulting risk aversion worldwide weighed on the rupee sentiment, a forex dealer said.

Rupee had risen by 10 per cent this year following consistent capital inflows into equity markets and the central bank’s reluctance to intervene in the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market.

The global markets went into a turmoil on panic sales in equity markets on the subprime fears. Nikkei dropped by 525 points, Singapore straight times by 150 points, Taiwan by 310 points and Hang Seng by 790 points.

The benchmark Sensex also came under the global influence and registered its biggest fall this year of 653 points to touch the low of 14,363.57 points in the morning trade.