PKR on a roll, gains 50 paisa per USD

April 14, 2023 (MLN): Rising optimism on upcoming foreign inflows, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) has appreciated by 50 paisa against the US dollar in today's interbank session as the currency settled the day's trade at PKR 284.4 per USD, compared to the previous close of PKR 284.91 per USD.

Throughout today’s session, the local unit traded in a band of 1.45 rupees, showing an intraday high bid of 285.25 and low offer of 284.25 while in the open market, PKR was traded at 285.5/288.5 per USD.

During the week, the currency gained 25 paisa against the greenback, as the previous week was concluded at PKR 284.65 per USD.

Earlier, two sessions of the week remained choppy for the local unit as uncertainty was at its peak in the absence of any development on the IMF front. Moreover, political upheaval played its due role to fuel the fire further.

However, on Wednesday, the currency started managing its ground on the hopes of the IMF deal. Mr. Jihad Azour Director of IMF, Middle East and Central Asia Department (MCD) expressed hope that the Staff Level Agreement (SLA) will be signed soon followed by the IMF Board’s approval. 

In addition to it, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities on Friday confirmed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) their bilateral support of $1 billion to Pakistan.

Cherry on the top, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will receive the third and last disbursement worth $300 million out of the approved facility of $1.3bn from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) today in its account.

Alternatively, the currency lost 41 paisa to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 356.5 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 356.09 per GBP.

Similarly, PKR's value weakened by 1.4 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 314.76 at the interbank today.

In FYTD, PKR lost 79.55 rupees or 27.97%, while it plummeted by 57.97 rupees or 20.38% against the USD in CYTD. Within the last seven sessions, the local unit moved up by 0.09%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

On another note, within the money market, the central bank conducted an Open Market Operation (OMO), and Shariah-compliant Mudarabah OMO today, in which it cumulatively injected a total of Rs625.55bn into the market, from which Rs549.95bn injected into the market under reverse repo.

The overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 21.25%/21.5%, whereas the 1-week rate was 28.95%/29.05%.

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