PKR marches on, strengthens by 59 paisa/USD

June 01, 2022 (MLN): Riding on an upward trail, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) managed to gain its ground back against the US dollar by a further 59 paisa in today's interbank session as the currency settled the trade at 197.87 compared to the previous session’s closing of PKR 198.46 per USD.

This was the fourth consecutive interbank session wherein the domestic unit continue to appreciate as the market regained its positive sentiments back owing to the hope of IMF’s upcoming tranche. The 4-day winning streak made it possible for PKR to recover by 4.09 rupees against the greenback. 

The pace of recovery provides a good opportunity for overseas Pakistanis and exporters to offload their holdings. 6-months forward has already lost Rs3 to close at 205.74, Asad Rizvi, the Former Treasury Head at Chase Manhattan Bank said.

Agreement with IMF will give a further boost to PKR, he added.

In today’s session, the local unit traded in a range of 1.4 rupees per USD showing an intraday high bid of 198.90 and an intraday low offer of 197.70 while, in the open market, PKR was traded at 196/18 per USD.

From July’21 to date, the local unit has lost Rs40.32 against the USD. Similarly, the rupee fell by Rs21.35 in CYTD, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

During the last 52 weeks, PKR lost 21.86% against the greenback, reached its lowest at 202 on May 26, 2022, and touched its high of 154.61 on June 4, 2021.

Furthermore, the local unit has weakened by 11.92% since its high on July 02, 2021, against EUR while, it has dropped by 12.71% against GBP since its high on July 02, 2021.

In addition, the performance of PKR improved today as it strengthened by 1.48%, 0.84%, 0.57%, 0.30%, and 0.29% against JPY, CNY, CHF, AED, and SAR, respectively. 

Meanwhile, the currency gained 1.3 rupees or 0.53% against the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 248.91 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 250.24 per GBP.

Similarly, PKR's value strengthened by 83 paisa or 0.39% against EUR which closed at PKR 212.08 at the interbank today.

On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 13.75/14.00 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 13.85/13.95 percent.

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