Rupee fell sharply in opening deals on Monday on concerns foreigners may pull out more from local stocks in the wake of record oil prices and high inflation.

At 9:06 am, the partially convertible rupee was at 42.90/91 per dollar, 0.6 per cent weaker than Friday's close of 42.66/67.

Foreigners had dumped $879.1 million of stocks in the four days to Thursday, bringing their net sales so far this year to $4.8 billion.