Rupee slightly up

The rupee traded slightly stronger on Tuesday, aided by soft dollar demand and healthy supplies, dealers said.

In the interbank market, the local currency ended at 154.23 against the dollar, higher from Monday’s closing of 154.27.

The rupee was quoted at 154.40 versus the greenback, compared with the previous day’s level of 154.30 in the open market. “There were some corporate payments in the first half, but exporters’ dollar sales and remittances flow late in the day helped the rupee gain some value against the dollar,” a foreign exchange dealer said.

The rupee is likely to appreciate further in the days ahead with declining import payments and positive sentiment, dealers said. “The underlying sentiment remains bullish due to increasing hopes of Pakistan being removed from the FATF [Financial Action Task Force] grey list,” another dealer said.

The FATF review is going on in Paris and the plenary session that would decide whether to keep Pakistan on grey list will be held on February 19. The positive foreign investment and textile exports data also helped the sentiment.

Foreign direct investment into Pakistan surged 65.7 percent to $1.563 billion in the seven months of the current fiscal year. Textile exports increased 3.68 percent to $8.099 billion in July-January FY20.