Rupee ends stable

The rupee remained largely stable against the dollar in the interbank foreign exchange market on Wednesday, dealers said.

The rupee closed at 154.26 per dollar, compared with Tuesday’s close of 154.23. In the open market, the rupee gained 10 paisas to settle at 154.30 versus the greenback. Dealers said the local unit inched down on routine dollar demand from importers. “We saw some corporate payments during the day, which put marginal pressure on the rupee,” said a currency dealer.

“The rupee is likely to trade around the current levels until the FATF decision on Pakistan’s placement in grey list comes,” he added. They said an expected positive outcome from this week meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) review kept sentiment positive.

They expect Pakistan will not get into the FTAF blacklist due to the Islamabad’s improved performance in the implementation of the 27-point recommendations on the anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism mechanism.

There are reports that the country has strong support from China and Turkey and reportedly also support from the United States to avoid blacklist. But the country is likely to remain in the gray list for at least two years as per FATF rules, media reports suggested.