The Pakistani rupee extended its marginal gains against the US dollar in the interbank market on Thursday.
The local unit closed the day at 277.01, a gain of Re0.01 against the greenback.
On Wednesday, the Pakistani rupee settled at 277.02 against the dollar.
Internationally, the US dollar held near its highest level in a year-and-a-half in subdued trading at the start of the Asian session on Thursday, after hawkish minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee signalled that policymakers at the US central bank viewed inflation as the biggest risk to their outlook.
The dollar index, which measures its strength against a basket of six currencies, was steady at 102.23 after rising 0.3% on Wednesday.
The greenback remains within a few pips of its strongest levels since April 9, 2025, following the market turmoil that accompanied the so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement the previous week.
Federal Reserve policymakers voted unanimously to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point at the US central bank’s September 15-16 meeting, but minutes released Wednesday indicated divisions over their rationale for doing so.
The minutes did little to shift expectations that the Fed will refrain from hiking at its meeting later this month. Fed funds futures are pricing an implied 19% probability of a 25-basis-point hike at the US central bank’s next two-day meeting ending Oct 28, unchanged from a day earlier, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Against the yen, the US dollar was down 0.2% at 157.815 yen after data released on Thursday showed Japan’s current account surplus stood at 4.062 trillion yen ($25.7 billion) in August, higher than economists’ median forecast for a surplus of 3.19 trillion yen.
Oil prices, a key indicator of currency parity, rose on Thursday on persistent worries about supply from the key Middle East producing region amid an increase in attacks on shipping in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, while the US cut output as a hurricane menaced offshore production.
Brent crude futures rose $2.28, or 2.28%, to $102.28 a barrel by 0427 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained $1.66, or 1.88%, to $89.94.
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