KARACHI: The rupee on Wednesday recovered its lost ground to a lesser extent, helped by tight currency demand and low healthy inflation.
In the interbank market, the rupee closed at 160 160.50 / dollar, compared to the previous close of 16061.
In the open market, Rs. However, the dollar remained unchanged at 160.70. Dealers say the local unit recovered from losses in the last two sessions in a bid to reduce demand from importers.
“There was no heavy payment and the supply of dollars was smooth,” said a foreign exchange dealer.
Dealers said that in addition to the improvement in the supply of US currency, the positive sentiment before Biden’s inauguration also supported the local unit.
“We expect the rupee to remain stable in the coming session.” He added that traders were unlikely to take up new positions before the announcement of the monetary policy on Friday.
Analysts and markets expect a stalemate in the January monetary policy announcement.
The SBP is likely to maintain the policy rate at 7% for the next two months.
Topline Securities polled top niche financial market participants for their views on the forthcoming monetary policy statement. 75% of the 22 participants do not expect any change in the policy rate in the MPS as of January 22, 2021. About 19% of participants expect an increase in the policy rate, while 10% expect an increase of 100 to 150 basis points.
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