Rupee ends steady

KARACHI: The rupee was a little changed on Monday as traders were reluctant to take fresh positions ahead of the central bank’s monetary policy decision and the International Monetary Fund’s approval for the last tranche under the stand-by arrangement.

In the interbank market, the rupee ended at 278.39 to the dollar, compared with Friday’s close of 278.38.However, the rupee lost ground in the open market. It was trading at 279.68 per dollar, down from 279.59 in the previous session.

Dealers said that the rupee traded within narrow ranges in the interbank market. Market players monitored whether there will be a rate cut or not as the State Bank of Pakistan gears up to announce its monetary policy on Monday evening.

The SBP kept the policy rate unchanged at a record 22 percent for its seventh straight meeting. The monetary policy statement was released around 5 p.m., almost an hour after the foreign exchange trading closed at 4 p.m.For nearly a year now, the currency has remained stable, allaying concerns about further decline. The country’s external sector has improved. The nation's foreign reserves have increased recently, and by the end of June, they should stand at $9–10 billion or roughly two months' worth of import cover. Currently, the SBP has about $8 billion in reserves.