The Indian rupee is now claiming its place among the worst performing currency in Asia after falling to its lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years.

The Indian currency continues its fall on Friday passing the psychological mark of Rs. 50 per dollar. The Indian currency market was shut on Thursday on account of Gurunanak Jayanti and it opened at lower by 17 paise at 50.35, after which it rose 49.97, but again fell below the crucial mark.

The weak domestic share market also put pressure on the rupee as global investors looked to park funds in safer US dollar terms. The US dollar index that measures the performance of the U. S. unit against a basket of six currencies was recorded down 0.27% at 77.54.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs. 559.04 crore in Indian while the BSE Sensex fell by 194.19 points, or 1.11 per cent, to 17,167.91 in opening trade on Friday. Among other Asian currencies, the Taiwan dollar is up 0.33% at 30.14, the South Korean won added 0.90% at 1124.20 while the Indonesian Rupiah gained 0.17% at 8985 against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, the Moody's Investor Service decided to downgrade the outlook for India's banking system to "negative" from "stable" on Wednesday.

Moody said that the slowing growth in the domestic as well as international markets was affecting asset quality, capitalization and profitability of the Indian banks. It said in a statement that a slowdown in growth as well as an increased borrowing by the government is set to reduce funds available in the private credit market.