Intra-day update: rupee falls against US dollar in inter-bank and open markets

The Pakistani rupee slipped modestly against the US dollar on Monday, falling about 0.08% during interbank trading.

Around 11:15 a.m., the rupee was trading at 285.90, down Re0.22.

The PKR was trading in a range of 302-305 per dollar on the open market.

The rupee had dropped marginally by 0.19% versus the US dollar in the previous week, finishing at 285.68 on Friday, but it was the currency movement in the open market that drew notice.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said last week that authorised foreign currency dealers will be able to purchase US dollars from the inter-bank market in order to settle card-based cross-border transactions with international payment schemes such as Visa and MasterCard.

The reaction to the development was a drop in the open market prices of the US dollar the next day, but dealers Business Recorder contacted stated the foreign currency remained scarce, rendering the gain of about Rs20 insignificant.

Globally, the US dollar strengthened versus major peers in Asian trading after strong US jobs data prompted traders to price in higher interest rates for a longer period of time.

Higher Treasury yields boosted the US dollar as statistics on Friday showed that payrolls in the public and private sectors climbed by 339,000 in May, well beyond the 190,000 anticipated by economists polled by Reuters.

While headline US job growth was much stronger than expected in May, wage pressures eased and the unemployment rate rose from a 53-year low, potentially giving the Federal Reserve room to pause their rate hike campaign at the upcoming June 13-14 meeting, as some officials indicated last week.

Oil prices, a major measure of currency parity, rose more than $1 per barrel on Monday after Saudi Arabia committed to cut output by another 1 million barrels per day beginning in July, counteracting macroeconomic headwinds that have depressed markets.

The post Intra-day update: rupee falls against US dollar in inter-bank and open markets appeared first on Economy.pk.