KARACHI, Sept 15: The rupee on Wednesday fell to 58.96 a US dollar in the inter-bank market showing a loss of four paisa overnight on continued demand for foreign exchange in the inter-bank market.

Some senior bankers said the dollar also traded at 58.98 but the State Bank made no apparent intervention. "Not that I know of," said a dealer at a foreign bank when asked whether the central bank had made any intervention to check the rise of the dollar.

The demand for the dollar has been high for quite some time mainly due to higher oil prices that has inflated import bills of oil refineries and oil marketing companies. On Wednesday also, an oil refinery paid a $20 million plus import bill.

But bankers said there were other payments as well, including those on account of transfer of funds by multinational companies. An official in an oil refinery told Dawn that higher oil prices had raised his company's import bill from $75-$100 million a month to $100-$120 million.

With the dollar closing at Rs58.96 on Wednesday, bankers are eager to know if the central bank would try to keep it below Rs59 through interventions or let it cross this level.

Like all other central banks, SBP too does not exactly indicate at what level it would support the rupee but its recent actions had signalled that it might not allow the dollar rise past Rs59.

The rupee has lost 84 paisa or 1.3 per cent of its value against the dollar since the start of this fiscal year on July 1 coming down to 58.94 on September 15 from 58.12 at the end of June. The rupee has weakened primarily due to rising trade deficit rooted in booming world oil prices.