Rupee strengthens

KARACHI: The rupee ended stronger against the dollar in the interbank market on Friday due to soft demand for the hard currency from importers and healthy inflows, dealers said.

It closed at 157.12 against the dollar, after touching 156.85 in intraday trading, while it closed at 157.16 on Thursday.

In the open market, the rupee ended at 157.40 to the dollar, compared with 157.50 in the previous session. Dealers said the domestic currency continued to appreciate against the greenback on the back of better inflows.

Dealers expect the rupee to strengthen to 156 against the dollar in the coming sessions.

“There were routine import payments today. Inflows were higher than the outflows,” a foreign exchange dealer said. “We expect sentiment on the rupee to remain strong, despite an ongoing political uncertainty in the country after the Senate elections,” the dealer added.

“We expect political noise to remain high even if the prime minister wins the vote of confidence, where the government may also find it hard to implement unpopular measures of the IMF programme,” an analyst at Topline Securities said in a report.