PKR falls by 48 paisa against USD

February 22, 2022 (MLN): After taking a breather for a day, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) joined back its downward course against the US dollar on Tuesday as the currency closed the trade at PKR 176.23, depreciating by 48 paisa.

On Monday, the local unit had settled the trade at PKR 175.75 per US dollar after observing a small gain of 11 paisa.

The rupee endured a relatively volatile session where it witnessed a fall of 54 paisa at 12:27 PST on the elevated dollar demand in the interbank market, showing an intraday high bid of 176.25 and an intraday low offer of 175.85.

However, as hinted by Asad Rizvi, the former Treasury Head at Chase Manhattan, PKR recovered some of its losses by 6 paisa by closing.

The sharp depreciation in PKR has been witnessed due to yesterday’s market closure in New York due on Washington's Birthday where banks could not receive funds in their Nostro Account which means increased demand from customers could add pressure on PKR as activity was thin on Monday, he added.  

Meanwhile, the local unit has lost Rs18.68 against the USD from July’21 to date, Whereas, the rupee appreciated by 0.28 paisa in CY22, with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a gain of 0.27%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

On the other hand, the performance of PKR remained comparatively better against major currencies during the fiscal year to date as the local unit appreciated by 1.75%, 1.61%, 1.47%, 1.39% and 1.37% against AUD, EUR, CAD, CNY and CHF, respectively.

Within the open market, PKR was traded at 176.50/177.50 per USD.

Alternatively, the currency gained 44 paisa against the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 239.13 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 239.57 per GBP.

Similarly, PKR's value strengthened by 95 paisa against EUR which closed at PKR 199.09 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 Rs57.35 billion into the market for 3 days at 9.76 percent.

The overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 9.85/10.00 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 10.05/10.15 percent.

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