Mumbai, June 06: The rupee is weakened today against the dollar in late morning trade on fears of intervention by the central bank. Experts believe that the Reserve Bank of India is believed to be holding the rupee above 40.50-level for the past few days.

In quiet trade at the inter-bank foreign exchange (Forex) market, the local currency resumed lower at 40.55/56 a dollar from yesterday's close of 40.52/53 a dollar and was later quoted at 40.5800/5850 per dollar in late morning deals.

Public sector banks seemed to be buyers of the greenback during morning trading, Forex dealers said. 

The local currency, however, received some support from sustained capital inflows into equity markets and expectations of further flows of about USD 5-7 billion during the month, particularly from IPO’s of leading companies.

Property developer DLF Ltd proposes to garner nearly USD 2.4 billion from the country's biggest IPO, which opens on June 11. ICICI Bank is also planning share sales in India and abroad to raise USD 5 billion.

One official from RBI in anonymity said that it is not easy to predict the up and down of rupee in the present trend of market.