LAHORE: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has surged 438.58 points within first one and a half hour of trading on Tuesday, touching 43,978.18 points on back of news the rupee further depreciated against the dollar to Rs115.0 in inter-bank market.
The benchmark KSE-100 index had settled at 43539.60 points, up 176.39 points on Monday’s close.
The Pakistan rupee has depreciated Rs 4.5 against the US dollar to Rs115.0 in inter-bank market on Tuesday morning compared to its closing rate of Rs110.5 on Monday.
This follows last week’s report of US dollar had plunged to a one-month low below Rs112 in the kerb market on 14th March, as it kept on losing steam against a casket of major global currencies.
In July, Moody’s Investor Service said the rupee was 20 percent overvalued and had urged the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to show some flexibility and let the PKR depreciate.
In a volatile trading session on December 8th, the rupee slumped to 109.50 per dollar at one point after opening at 105.55. It closed at 107 per dollar, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), after having mostly traded in a tight range of 104-105 per dollar since December 2015.
This mimicked rupee’s sharp fall on July 5th both in the interbank and kerb market when it reached a then 2.5 year high of Rs108.
A press release issued by the central bank then read “SBP is of the view that this market-driven adjustment in the exchange rate will contain the imbalance in the external account and sustain higher growth trajectory. The exchange rate will continue to reflect the demand and supply conditions; and SBP stands ready to intervene, in case speculative and/or momentary pressures emerge, for smooth functioning of the foreign exchange markets.”
