Pakistan rupee loses strength against US dollar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani rupee on Thursday depreciated by 13 paisa against the US dollar in the interbank trading and closed at Rs 278.35 against the previous day’s closing of Rs 278.22.

However, according to the Forex Association of Pakistan (FAP), the buying and selling rates of the dollar in the open market stood at Rs 277.90 and Rs 279.40 respectively.

The price of the Euro decreased by Rs2.38 to close at Rs 289.47 against the last day’s closing of Rs 291.85, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The Japanese yen came down by 04 paisa and closed at Rs1.77, whereas a decrease of Rs1.84 was witnessed in the exchange rate of the British Pound, which traded at Rs351.04 as compared to the last day’s closing of Rs352.88.

The exchange rates of the Emirates Dirham and the Saudi Riyal went up by 04 and 06 paisa to close at Rs75.78 and Rs74.06, respectively.

On the other hand, the bearish trend continued in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) as the KSE-100 index shed 4,795 points on Thursday, marking the biggest point-wise drop in history.

Also read: PSX suffers massive crash as KSE-100 sheds 4,795 points

KSE-100 shed 4,795.32 points, or 4.32 percent to settle at 106,274.98 at the closing of the stock market as against 111,070.29 points the previous trading day.

Collectively, the KSE-100 index lost 8,495 points during the previous two sessions.

A total of 1.16 billion shares were traded during the day at the PSX, as compared with 1.11 billion shares the previous trading day.

The price of shares stood at Rs56.8 billion as compared with Rs60.24 billion on the last trading day at the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

As many as 472 scrips were active in the stock market, out of which, 66 recorded gains and 371 sustained losses while the share price of 35 companies remained unchanged.

Analysts at Topline Securities called it a massacre at the PSX, saying that the KSE-100 Index experienced an unprecedented collapse, plummeting by 5,132 points in a single trading session—marking the steepest point-wise decline in its history.