State Bank of Pakistan intervenes to strengthens rupee

The State Bank of Pakistan intervened today to bring down inter-bank exchange rate of the dollar to Rs 105.35 but the volatile jump in the currency rates this week led to the country's biggest stock exchange in here losing around 280 points.
The US dollar had traded at around 110 rupees yesterday but the central bank intervened to bring down the rate by 4.65 rupees after the Governor state bank met with foreign exchange currency dealers to discuss the alarming situation.
Money dealers said that rapid buying by the central bank of the dollar from the market in anticipation of payment of IMF loan installment had led to the jump in the money market and inter-bank rates.

On Thursday morning the dollar was being traded at Rs110 after an increase throughout the week and in the open market it traded as high as 111 rupees but by end of day had decreased by around two and half rupees.
The volatile nature of the currency also had its effects on the stock exchange as the Karachi Stock Exchange 100-index took a fall of 1.21 percent and 280.08 points to close at 22,780 on Thursday.