The Pakistani rupee registered a marginal gain against the US dollar, appreciating 0.09% during the opening hours of trading in the inter-bank market on Thursday.
At 10am, the rupee was hovering at 278.22, a gain by Re0.25 against the greenback.
On Wednesday, the rupee had closed at 278.47, down by Re0.08.
The rupee has largely been stable around this rate for months with Pakistan eager to sign up for another bailout programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after its previous $3-billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) ended.
An IMF mission, led by Nathan Porter, began discussions, but details are yet to finalised. The new IMF programme is also being seen as crucial to maintain currency stability.
Globally, the US dollar hovered near a one-week high on Thursday following its best day this month against its major peers after minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting revealed a willingness to raise interest rates among some officials.
The dollar index, which tracks the currency against six major rivals including the euro, sterling, and yen, was little changed at 104.89 after gaining 0.28% overnight.
Minutes released on Wednesday from the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting showed the US central bank’s response to sticky inflation would “involve maintaining” its policy rate for now but also reflected discussion of possible further hikes.
Oil prices, a key indicator of currency parity, eased for a fourth straight day on Thursday on worries that US borrowing costs could be hiked again if inflation surged, a move that could hurt oil demand.
Brent crude futures fell 27 cents, or 0.3%, to $81.63 a barrel at 0004 GMT.
US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) futures were down 35 cents, or 0.5%, at $77.14.
Both benchmarks fell more than 1% on Wednesday.
This is an intra-day update
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