MUMBAI, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee weakened for the fourth consecutive session on Thursday, dropping to its lowest in nearly a month, as an early fall in domestic shares and month-end demand from refiners pushed up dollar purchases. At 10:27 a.m. (0457 GMT), the partially convertible rupee INR=IN was at 47.57/58 per dollar, off a low of 47.6250, its lowest since Oct. 5, and half a percent weaker than its previous close of 47.34/35. At the day's low, the rupee had shed 2.4 percent of its value so far this week. "There is a lot of month-end dollar buying in the market. For the near-future the rupee trend seems to have changed, we could see it going down further," said V. Kumar, chief foreign exchange dealer with State Bank of Travancore, predicting a range of 47.45-47.80 for the day. Importers and oil refiners pump up dollar purchases towards the close of each month, when they are required to make payments for their imports, weakening the rupee in the spot market. "Just like there was panic selling of dollars about 7-8 days ago, there is now panic buying in the market," a senior dealer with a private bank said.

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