Rupee weakens

KARACHI: The rupee weakened against the dollar on Monday amid higher demand for dollars for import payments.

However, dealers said that they expected the rupee to hold steady in the coming days. The rupee closed at 84.05/10 to the dollar, compared with Friday’s close of 83.95/84.00. Dealers said they expected the rupee to be stable in the shortterm but it could weaken in the medium-term because of pressure from import payments. In the money market, overnight rates ended up on Monday after the State Bank of Pakistan sold Rs65 billion of treasury bills in a four-day repo at 10.97 per cent.