MUMBAI: The Indian rupee on Tuesday eased from the 7-week high touched in the previous session weighed by weak domestic shares and a broadly strong dollar overseas. At 11:45 a.m. (0615 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 45.2250/2300 per dollar, weaker than 44.985/995 at close on Monday when it had touched 44.985 -- its strongest since Jan. 4. "It is in line with other global markets. The stocks are negative and the dollar index is up today. So the rupee is tracking that," said Rohan Naik, head of foreign exchange trading at Standard Chartered Bank, adding, he expects the Indian unit to trade in a range of 45.10-45.25 intraday. The dollar index against six major currencies was up 0.5 percent at 78.077 points. The dollar rose broadly and the New Zealand dollar tumbled on Tuesday as mounting tension in the Middle East and a deadly earthquake in New Zealand drove investors to cut risk. Indian shares eased 0.4 percent on Tuesday as escalating unrest in Libya sent oil prices higher and spooked investors across world markets. Weak Asian currencies also weighed on the local unit. Most Asian currencies were weaker compared with the U.S. dollar. The one-month onshore forward premiums were quoted at 22.75 points, unchanged from last close. The one-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 45.46, weaker than the onshore spot rate. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange were all at 45.2525, with the total traded volume on the three exchanges at about $2.6 billion.

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