The Pakistani rupee strengthened against the US dollar, appreciating 0.1% during the opening hours of trading in the inter-bank market on Friday.

At 10am, the currency was hovering at 277.52, a gain of Re0.27 against the US dollar.

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

In a key development, foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP increased by $215 million on a weekly basis, clocking in at $11.02 billion to hit 2.5-year high as of October 11, 2024, data released on Thursday showed.

Globally, the US dollar was headed for its third weekly gain in a row on Friday, helped by a dovish European Central Bank and strong US data that is pushing out expectations for how fast US rates can fall, particularly if Donald Trump wins the presidency.

The greenback pared some of those gains and last bought 149.93 yen on Friday.

Data on Thursday showed US retail sales growth was higher than expected and the ECB cut interest rates by 25 basis points.

Meanwhile, markets have been disappointed at the lack of detail offered by Chinese authorities on plans to revive the slowing economy, and the yuan is headed for its largest weekly fall in more than 13 months against a resilient dollar.

Oil prices, a key indicator of currency parity, steadied on Friday after strong US retail sales data, but Chinese economic indicators remained mixed and prices were headed for their biggest weekly loss in more than a month on concerns about demand.

Brent crude futures gained 8 cents, or 0.1%, to $74.53 a barrel by 0338 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $70.82 a barrel, up 15 cents, or 0.2%.

Both contracts settled higher on Thursday for the first time in five sessions after data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that US crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week.

This is an intra-day update