MUMBAI: The Indian rupee lost 36 paise or more than half a per cent against the US dollar on Monday amid dollar buying by some state-owned oil companies, while mirroring weakness in global currencies versus the greenback. The rupee hit a fresh two-year low to close at 66.82 versus 66.46 per dollar last Friday. During the day, it touched intra-day low at 66.85. “Global dollar strengthening against major currencies as well as emerging market currencies put pressure on the rupee-dollar on the back of expected US rate hike,” said Keta Kurkute, AVP-forex advisory, Mecklai Financial. “In the early trades some oil companies were seen buying dollars for making spot and forward payments.” Oil companies are believed to have bought about $300-500 million in the early trades, dealers said. Most Asian currencies were trading lower. The Turkish lira hit record lows at 3.0475 against the dollar early on Monday as political uncertainty has shaken the local economy. Malaysian ringgit, South Korean won, Indonesian rupiah all were down between 0.50-1.68%. The Reserve Bank of India is suspected to have intervened to curb the market volatility. The central bank has sold dollars heavily at 66.80 level, which prevented the local unit’s further losses, dealers said. The rupee opened lower at 66.57 per dollar as the spot exchange rate in the offshore non-deliverable market the local unit weakened substantially. The one-month forward contract was trading at 67.20 per dollar, which was about 50-60 paisa weaker than earlier as investors were seeking the safety of dollar amid global growth pangs barring US. “The USD-INR currency pair will continue to be guided by global currency moves against the dollar but the central bank intervention would stem any large spikes,” said a chief dealer from a public sector bank.