Rupee extends losses

The rupee extended losses in the second consecutive session on Tuesday due to dollar demand from importers, dealers said.

The local currency closed at 156.32 against the greenback, compared with 156.23 in the interbank foreign exchange market. In the open market, the rupee gained 15 paisas to close at 156.35 against the greenback. Dealers said the currency posted slight losses in a dull trade on the back of the importers’ demand. However, the investors were still worried about the oil price prospects as weighed the implications of a major attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities at the weekend.

Brent crude was down 1.5 percent at $68 a barrel on Tuesday. The State Bank of Pakistan kept the policy rate unchanged at 13.25 percent in its latest monetary policy meeting on Monday.

Encouragingly, the SBP’s inflation projections have remained largely unchanged from the time of previous monetary policy statement. However, the central bank believes external and fiscal side still has a lot of room for improvement, a report of Alfalah Securities said. Meanwhile, a delegation of the International Monetary Fund held talks with the government officials to review programme progress in Islamabad. The finance ministry said the economic reform programme signed with the IMF was on track and the progress so far on all the performance and structural benchmarks was encouraging.