Mumbai: The rupee belittled by 8 paise to trade at 66.95 against the USD in early trade today, due to constant demand for the American unit from importers and banks amid a lesser initial in the domestic equity market.

Forex dealers said, “apart from increased demand for the US currency from importers, foreign fund outflows and rising global crude oil prices amid dollar's gains against other currencies foreign put pressure on the rupee.”

The domestic unit had lost 7 paise to close at 66.87 in yesterday's trade.

However,scale BSE Sensex tumbled by 210.46 points or 0.81% to 25,563.15 in early trade.