Rupee weakens

KARACHI: The rupee erased previous session’s gains to close slightly weaker against the dollar on Friday with hopes to gain in coming sessions on the back of receiving around $2.3 billion from China, dealers said.

In the interbank market, the local unit ended at 207.48 to the dollar, compared with Thursday’s close of 207.23. It fell by 0.12 percent during the session.

The rupee remained flat at 209 versus the greenback in the open market.

Dealers said though the local unit lost ground in today’s session; it has significantly recovered from the record lows it made in last nine sessions. The domestic currency hit an all-time low of 211.93 on Wednesday.

Analysts said the rupee is likely to stabilise in coming sessions due to positive sentiment following the receiving of inflows from China.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has received the Chinese consortium loan of RMB15 billion today, it said on its official Twitter handle.

“I am pleased to announce that a Chinese consortium loan of RMB 15 billion (roughly $2.3 billion) has been credited into the SBP account today, increasing our foreign exchange reserves,” said Miftah Ismail, the finance minister in a tweet.

The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves plunged to their lowest level in 32 months at $8.2 billion as of June 17, from $8.99 billion a week earlier.

The reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan fell by $748 million or 8.3 percent on a week-on-week basis. The SBP attributed a decline in the reserves to the external debt repayments.