KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee rose for the second day on Wednesday after falling to an all-time low earlier in the week, amid soft demand for the dollar from importers, dealers said.

The rupee ended at 89.96/90.01 to the dollar, up from 90.00/90.05 a day earlier. The rupee fell to a record low of 91.28 to the dollar in intra-day trade on Monday.

“The rupee was pretty stable today as there were very few dollar payments and so the (dollar) demand was pretty low,” said a dealer at a foreign bank.

Some dealers said suspected dollar selling by the central bank over the past couple of days had also boosted the US currency's supply in the inter-bank market, preventing a sharp fall in the rupee and improving the sentiment.

However, they said the rupee is likely to remain weak in the weeks ahead. The rupee lost 4.82 per cent in 2011 after falling 1.53 per cent in 2010.

Analysts say concerns about the country's economic stability, especially a weakening current account, are adding to the pressure on the rupee.

Pakistan's current account deficit stood at $2.104 billion in July-Nov compared with $589 million in the same period a year earlier. The deficit is likely to widen further in the coming months because of debt repayments and a lack of external aid.

Islamabad has to start paying back an $8 billion International Monetary Fund loan in early 2012, and more than $1.1 billion is due in the second half of the 2011/12 fiscal year (July-June).

Without additional sources of revenue, Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves may also come under pressure, analysts said.

These reserves were at $16.77 billion in the week ending Dec. 23, compared with a record $18.31 billion as of July 30.

Meanwhile, stocks ended almost flat after recent sharp falls, thanks to some investor interest in the fertiliser stocks, though volumes still remained thin, dealers said.

The Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark 100-share index ended only 0.02 per cent, or 2.69 points, lower at 10,930.49 on turnover of just 23.06 million shares.

In the money market, overnight rates ended unchanged at 11.90 per cent as dealers awaited the result of a fortnightly central bank treasury bills auction, which will be announced later in the day.