PKR secures 28 paisa against USD

February 17, 2022 (MLN): Riding a seesaw journey in the interbank market, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) managed to hold its ground in a second consecutive session as the currency closed the trade at PKR 175.39 per US dollar, appreciating by 28 paisa.

Yesterday, the local unit had settled the trade against USD at PKR 175.67 after securing 11 paisa.

The rupee endured a relatively dull trading session as it traded in a range of 35 paisa per USD showing an intraday high bid of 175.45 and an intraday low offer of 175.25.

The central bank, in its recent move with an objective to improve foreign exchange inflows in the interbank market and facilitate exporters and encourage timely inflow of export proceeds, has enhanced the scope of Export Finance Scheme (EFS) – both conventional as well as Sharia-based, allowing the exporters to obtain financing against their export proceeds through discounting of export bills/receivables.

Discounting of bills/receivables is essentially a financial transaction where the exporter surrenders its future export proceeds and obtain financing in PKR for the remainder of the time period of exports proceeds realization.

This initiative will help exporters meet their working capital needs and also incentivize them to bring in their export proceeds in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, the local unit has lost Rs17.84 against the USD from July’21 to date, Whereas, the rupee appreciated by PKR 1.12 paisa in CY22, with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a gain of 0.75%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

However, the performance of PKR remained comparatively better against major currencies during one month as the local unit appreciated by 2.28%, 1.62%, 1.46%, and 1.41% against AUD, CAD, CNY, and GBP, respectively. On the other hand, PKR has depreciated by 0.78% against EUR and lost some ground by 0.35% against CHF.

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

Alternatively, the currency lost 10 paisa to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 238.24 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 238.14 per GBP.

On the other hand, PKR's value strengthened by 86 paisa against EUR which closed at PKR 198.98 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 Rs390.8 billion into the market for 1 day at 9.85 percent.

The overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 9.80/10.00 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 9.95/10.05 percent.

Copyright Mettis Link News