Rupee on Thursday fell for the fourth straight session and settled 5 paisa lower to close at 154.84 against American dollar (USD) in an interbank market.
The rupee had closed at PKR 154.78 per USD on Wednesday. The rupee witnessed a mild activity in intraday trade as it was traded in a range of 80 paisa per USD, showing an intraday high bid of 155.30 and an intraday Low offer of 154.55. Within the open market, rupee was traded at 155/156 per USD. In his Twitter handle, Asad Rizvi, former Treasury Head-Chase Manhattan Bank said, “By next week, the impact of long M/Eastern Eid Holidays should be over. Remittances inflow should get back to normal. PKR that lost over 1% of its value is attractive.”
“The release of Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER), which is due next will provide further direction to the rupee,.” he added.
According to the data compiled by Mettis Global, in FY21, the home unit has gained by PKR 13.22 or 8.53% against the greenback so far while it appreciated by around PKR 5 or 3.23% in CY21 with MTD (month to date) position showing a decrease of 0.89%. Alternatively, the currency gained 28 paisa against the Pound Sterling as the day’s closing quote stood at PKR 218.74 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 219.02 per GBP. Similarly, PKR’s value strengthened by 53 paisa against EUR which closed at PKR 188.87 at the interbank today. On another note, within the money market, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted an Open Market Operation in which it mopped up Rs.77.05 billion for 1 day at 6.96 percent. The overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 6.50/6.75 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 7.00/7.05 percent.