Directives by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to ward off speculative trade in the currency market, helped the rupee to minimise its losses versus the dollar, money experts said.
At official closing, in the interbank market the rupee lost approximately, Rs 1.75 or nearly two percent against the dollar for buying and selling at 68.25 and 68.75 following the cautionary steps taken by central bank to keep the rupee at a certain level, they said.
The morning session started on a negative note as the rupee opened with a fall of 2.00 or two percent at 68.50 and 69.00 for buying and selling, they said. Later, during the afternoon session, it trimmed its erosion, recovered, 75 paisa for buying and selling at 67.50 and 68.00
Last week SBP governor asked the moneychangers' bosses to take necessary measures to stop speculative buying of dollars, they said. As a result of corrective measures, a positive development was also noticed that at a time the gap narrowed between official and open market rates and also the difference between buying and selling rates, as well.
Mounting fears on the political front are pushing the whole nation into the unforeseen uncertainties, already under pressure due to weak economic fundamentals, as well, they said.
In the first session of the week in Asia, dollar posted modest gains in as traders braced for a raft of data that may shed new light on the extent of the US economic slowdown, dealers said. The dollar edged up to 103.13 yen in Tokyo morning trade from 102.82 in New York late Friday. The euro slipped to 1.5440 dollars from 1.5481 but was stable at 159.16 yen.
The dollar gained ground as speculators adjusted positions following heavy selling of the US currency at the weekend as traders bet on steady eurozone interest rates and mulled news of a big quarterly loss at US insurance giant AIG.

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Open Buying             Rs.67.85
Open Selling            Rs.67.95
================================

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Buying                Rs 68.25
Selling               Rs 68.75
==============================
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Repo Rates (Yield p a)
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Tenor      Low Bid   High Bid   Low Offer   High Offer    Average
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Overnight     8.75     10.00       9.00       10.25          9.50
1-Week        9.00      9.25       9.25        9.50          9.25
2-Weeks       9.15      9.40       9.25        9.50          9.33
1-Month       9.25      9.50       9.40        9.70          9.46
2-Months      9.50      9.80       9.70        9.90          9.73
3-Months      9.65      9.90       9.80       10.00          9.84
4-Months      9.75     10.00       9.90       10.10          9.94
5-Months      9.85     10.10      10.00       10.20         10.04
6-Months      9.85     10.10      10.00       10.20         10.04
9-Months      9.90     10.10      10.10       10.25         10.09
1-Year       10.00     10.25      10.20       10.40         10.21
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Call Rates (Yield p a)
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Tenor      Low Bid   High Bid   Low Offer   High Offer    Average
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Overnight     9.50     10.50       9.75       10.75         10.13
1-Week        9.50     10.00       9.75       10.25          9.88
2-Weeks       9.50      9.75       9.75       10.00          9.75
1-Month       9.60     10.00       9.90       10.25          9.94
2-Months      9.90     10.25      10.10       10.40         10.16
3-Months     10.00     10.25      10.25       10.40         10.23
4-Months     10.00     10.40      10.25       10.60         10.31
5-Months     10.25     10.75      10.40       11.00         10.60
6-Months     10.25     11.00      10.50       11.25         10.75
9-Months     10.40     11.00      10.60       11.25         10.81
1-Year       10.50     11.00      10.75       11.50         10.94
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