Rupee ends winning streak against dollar – Financeupdates

• Rupee closes at 220.70 against dollar around 12:40pm.
• Tahir Abbas says IMF review will ease some targets.
• Currency to consolidate between 215 to 220, he adds.

KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee ended its winning streak against the US dollar on Wednesday as the local unit lost Re0.97 during intraday trade as it comes under pressure due to import payments and political uncertainty.

The local currency was gaining ground against the greenback in the last three consecutive sessions and gained Rs1.1 and was trading below 219.

However, rupee was changing hands at 220.70 at around 12:40pm today. It closed at 219.73 against the US dollar on Tuesday. 

Commenting on the rupee’s movement, Arif Habib Limited’s Head of Research Tahir Abbas said that the local unit is facing a “little pressure” in the interbank market. 

He said that it seems like Pakistan has received funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the foreign exchange reserves stand in a better position. 

“Most likely, allocation of $2 billion in funds from the World Bank will be received in November or December,” he said, adding that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) review scheduled in November will provide some relaxation and some targets will be eased up. 

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to China next month is expected to tap into new investment opportunities and there might be talks about rescheduling, he said. 

“This is a daily basis depreciation, however, the currency will consolidate between 215 to 220,” he added. 

Speaking to Geo.tv, Pakistan-Kuwait Head of Research Samiullah Tariq said that the currency is market-determined, so the supply derives the demand. 

He added that there is a bit of pressure from the imports and the political uncertainty impacted the currency. 

Tariq said that the market depended on the ADB’s funds and that it would reverse the impact. However, according to the recent government system, the number of dollar outflows will be the same as inflows. 

He added that the effect of backlog from the 2-3 days can be seen on the parity.