The Indian rupee has fallen 19 paise to the day’s level of Rs 51.60 to the US dollar due to high demand for the US currency for banks and business partners.

The rupee opened at Rs 51.34/35 per dollar on the Interbank Foreign Exchange compared to the previous close of Rs 51.41/42 per dollar. The positive opening was due to selling of the American currency by banks and exporters in view of foreign capital inflows in to domestic shares.

Even as the domes share market was treading in positive the Indian rupee did not manage to maintain the initial gains and dropped to Rs 51.59 per dollar due to demand for dollar later. The Indian currency had hovered in a range between Rs 51.34 and Rs 51.53 per dollar during early morning deals.

In futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange were all at 51.6875. The total volume was at $1.12 billion.

The rupee has some support from the growing stock markets and indications form Europe that the leaders might be able to address the eurzone debt crisis soon.

The US Dollar rose a bit against the euro in New York before an important meeting f European leaders.