USD/PKR kept steady below the 155 mark in light-volume Asian trade on Wednesday.
Developments surrounding US-China trade agreement still remain in the markets’ spotlight. US President Donald Trump said on December 24th that he and China’s President Xi Jinping would hold a signing ceremony for the first phase of the trade deal.
“We will be having a signing ceremony, yes,” Trump was quoted as saying by Reuters. “We will ultimately, yes, when we get together. And we’ll be having a quicker signing because we want to get it done. The deal is done, it’s just being translated right now.”
In a statement in Beijing on Wednesday, Geng Shuang, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, noted that the two countries were in close contact.
Recent trade optimism has supported demand for emerging market currencies.
The spread between 3-year Pakistani and 3-year US bond yields, which reflects the flow of funds in a short term, expanded to 10.468% (1046.8 basis points) on December 25th from 10.436% (1043.6 basis points) on December 24th.
Thursday’s economic calendar does not offer much, with the only relevant report coming out at 13:30 GMT today is the weekly data on US jobless claims. The number of initial jobless claims probably decreased to 220 000 during the business week ended December 20th, according to market expectations, from 234 000 in the preceding week.
The US Dollar Index was little changed at 97.63 in early Asian trade on Thursday. While the USD/PKR exchange rate was steady at 154.70 in early Asian session on Thursday.
Elsewhere, the benchmark equity index Karachi Stock Exchange KSE-100 Index was seen quoted higher at 40,735 up 1.01% in early Asia trading hours. Year-to-day the Pakistan stock exchange market is on track to post a 9.90% return.
The Pakistan 10-year government bond yield was seen quoted at 11.248 up 2.25%.