The Pakistani rupee registered a minor gain against the US dollar, appreciating 0.01% in the opening hours of trading in the inter-bank market on Wednesday.
At 10:30am, the rupee was hovering at 277.8, a gain of Re0.04 against the greenback.
On Monday, the rupee registered a marginal gain to settle at 277.84 against the US dollar, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
In a key development, after a gap of four years, a net inflow in T-Bill of $82 million was seen from March 01-22, 2024, according to official SBP data. Since January 2024 these inflows have reached $126 million.
Carry trades are common in countries with high interest rates, Muhammad Sohail, leading analyst and CEO of Topline Securities said.
But in the case of Pakistan political uncertainty and currency risk was not allowing investors to do this arbitrage, he added.
Globally, the US dollar was on the front foot on Wednesday, pinning the yen near its lowest its decades although the heightened threat of currency intervention by Tokyo capped further declines in the Japanese currency.
The US dollar, which on Tuesday touched a nearly five-month high of 105.10 against a basket of currencies, was last steady at 104.78.
The greenback’s charge higher this week has come on the back of yet another run of resilient US economic data, which showed manufacturing growing for the first time in 1-1/2 years in March, a greater-than-expected rebound in new orders for US-manufactured goods, as well as a still-resilient labor market.
Oil prices, a key indicator of currency parity, extended gains on Wednesday as a larger than expected fall in US crude inventories and escalating geopolitical tensions raised investor worries about tighter supplies.
Brent futures for June delivery rose 20 cents, or 0.22%, to $89.12 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for May climbed 17 cents, or about 0.2%, to $85.32 a barrel, at 0015 GMT.
Both Brent and WTI had climbed to their highest since October on the previous day.
This is an intra-day update
