Rupee loses ground against dollar

KARACHI: The rupee fell for a third consecutive session in the interbank market on Wednesday, pressured by dollar demand for imports and other payments.

The rupee closed at 277.84 per dollar, compared with Monday’s close of 277.74Dealers said that the dollar demand from importers to settle their bills and foreign companies seeking to repatriate profits and dividends to their home countries put pressure on the local unit.

The dollar requirements surpassed inflows from export proceeds and remittances. This led to a decline in the value of the rupee against the dollar, according to dealers.In the open market, the rupee gave up the previous session’s gains to close slightly lower against the dollar. It was trading at 279.28 to the dollar, down from 279.25 in the previous session.

Dealers expect that the rupee will trade in a range-bound manner in the coming sessions, as market participants are closely monitoring the two-day meeting of the Council of the Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states in Islamabad.