Intra-day update: rupee largely stable against US dollar

The Pakistani rupee remained largely stable against the US dollar, appreciating 0.03% during the opening hours of trading in the inter-bank market on Tuesday.

At 10:30am, the currency was hovering at 277.72, a gain of Re0.07 against the greenback.

On Monday, the rupee had settled at 277.79, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Internationally, the US dollar started Tuesday on the defensive as traders squared positions on the day of the US presidential election, after recent polls dented some market bets on a victory for Republican Donald Trump.

Democrat Kamala Harris has also experienced improving odds on election gambling sites and has a slight lead on PredictIt, although Polymarket continues to show Trump as favourite.

In recent weeks, financial markets and some betting platforms had leaned strongly in favour of a win for Trump, whose tariff and immigration policies are considered inflationary by analysts, leading to a rise in US Treasury yields and gains for the dollar.

Overnight, though, the US currency slumped as much as 0.76% against the euro to a three-week trough after a weekend opinion poll showed Harris with a surprise lead in Iowa, a traditional Republican stronghold.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against six major peers including the euro, was flat at 103.91 as of 0349 GMT, after slumping as low as 103.67 on Monday for the first time since Oct. 21.

Last week it surged to the highest since the end of July at 104.63.

Oil prices, a key indicator of currency parity, traded in a narrow range on Tuesday ahead of what is expected to be an exceptionally close US presidential election, after rising more than 2% in the previous session as OPEC+ delayed plans to hike production in December.

Brent crude futures ticked up 14 cents, or 0.19%, to $75.22 a barrel by 0400 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $71.6 a barrel, up 13 cents, or 0.18%.

This is an intra-day update