The Indian rupee continued its downward march and fell by another 48 paise to 46.53 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday owing to melting Asian stock markets amid heavy demand for the greenback.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the Indian currency had breached the psychologically 46-level against the greenback to 46.05/06 yesterday, for the first time in two years.

The turmoil in global financial market following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and takeover of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America also affected the rupee movement.