June 20, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1429

KARACHI, June 19: The rupee weakened 0.7 per cent against the dollar on Thursday as dealers said demand for dollars emerged from importers making payments.

The rupee was quoted closing at 67.40/50 to the dollar, compared with Wednesday’s closing of 66.90/67.00.

“There were some oil import payments due which caused the rupee to weaken,” said a currency dealer in Karachi.

But dealers said the rupee was expected to stay stable in the short term because of foreign inflows. In the money market, overnight rates eased from top levels as dealers said there was an inflow of Rs42 billion against an outflow of Rs15 billion.

Overnight call rates ended at 11 per cent, down from Wednesday’s close of 11.9 per cent at which banks borrowed Rs21.06 billion from the State Bank’s discount window.—Reuters