Rupee remains flat

The rupee managed to post slight gains on Wednesday due to match between demand and supply of the dollars, dealers said.

The rupee closed at 158.57 against the greenback, compared with the previous closing of 158.59 in the interbank foreign exchange market. In the open market, the local currency traded flat at 158.90 versus the dollar for the third consecutive session. Investors were upbeat on the balance of payments data, dealers said.

Figures published by the State Bank of Pakistan showed that the current account deficit narrowed sharply by 73 percent in the first month of the current fiscal year of 2019/20 due to slowdown in trade gap.

The current account deficit stood at $579 million in July, compared with $2.130 billion in the same period of the last year.

Positive sentiments area also prevailing in the market on improved dollar supplies and intervention offer by US President Trump in the Kashmir issue, which is expected to ease out the current Indo-Pak conflict, a dealer said.

However, investors were concerned about the July’s gloomy foreign direct investment numbers. Foreign direct investment into Pakistan fell 59 percent to $73.4 million in July 2019.

The Asia-Pacific Group, the regional affiliate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is currently conducting evaluation in Australia, which will determine the country’s removal from the grey list of the FATF next month.