March 31, 2022 (MLN): Enduring the bleak phase of depreciation, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) has lost its ground further by 84 paisa against the US dollar in today's interbank session as the currency settled the trade at PKR 183.48, compared to yesterday’s closing of PKR 182.64 per USD.
During the session, the domestic unit traded in a range of 90 paisa per USD witnessing an intraday high bid of 183.55 and an intraday low offer of 182.65.
Along with ongoing political noise and weak macros, the speculative elements have encouraged the dollar to dominate further in the interbank market, Ahsan Mehanti, Director Arif Habib Group said while speaking to Mettis Global.
In addition to the no-confidence motion, the sharp decline in SBP reserves as the reserves have gone down to around $15 billion from the peak of around $20bn and the delay in IMF Program have also created uncertainty in the market, Fahad Rauf, Head of Research at Ismail Iqbal Securities told Mettis.
From July’21 to date, the local unit has lost Rs25.93 against the USD. Similarly, the rupee fell by Rs6.96 in CY22, with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a decline of 3.27%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.
During the last 52 weeks, PKR lost 17.01% against the greenback, reached its lowest at 183.48 today and touched its high of 152.27 on May 7, 2021.
Furthermore, the local unit has weakened by 12.14% since its high on March 31, 2021, against EUR. While, it has dropped by 13.02% against GBP since its high on April 09, 2021.
In addition, the performance of PKR remained bleak against major currencies during the month to date as it depreciated by 3.28%, 3.28%, 3.52%, 3.02%, 2.78%, and 1.45% against SAR, AED, CHF, EUR, CNY, and GBP. However, the currency has strengthened by 1.72% against JPY.
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Within the open market, PKR was traded at 184/185 per USD.
Meanwhile, the currency lost 1.4 rupees to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 241.04 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 239.67 per GBP.
Similarly, PKR's value weakened by 1.6 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 204.74 at the interbank today.
On another note, within the money market, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted an Open Market Operation (OMO) in which it injected Rs2.26 trillion into the market for 1 day at 9.85 percent.
The overnight repo rate towards close of the session was 10.70/10.75 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 10.04/10.14 percent.
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