BB intervention in forex market continues

FE Team | Published: November 14, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) again intervened in the inter-bank foreign exchange market Tuesday through sale of the greenback to keep the market stable.
The central bank sold US$12 million at prevailing market rate to five commercial banks on the day to meet the growing demand for the greenback, official sources said.
"We will take further steps in line with the market demand," a BB senior official told the FE Tuesday, adding that the central bank sold the US dollar to the commercial banks to reduce the gap in its demand and supply.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 68.61 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against Tk 68.63-Tk 68.64 of the previous working day, market sources said.
The central bank started intervening in the market since a fortnight back aiming to keep the inter-bank foreign exchange market stable.
The central bank has so far sold $121 million to the commercial banks as part of its market intervention.
"The Bangladesh Taka is likely to appreciate marginally against the US dollar in the near future," a senior treasury official of a commercial bank told the FE.
The exchange rate of the Indian rupee against the taka fluctuated between Tk 1.56 and Tk 1.73.
In the regional market, the exchange rate of the dollar against the Indian rupee moved between Rs 39.12 and Rs 39.15 and the Pakistani rupee between Rs 60.87 and Rs 61.07. Besides, the exchange rate of the dollar against the Malaysian ringgit varied between 3.3350 ringgit and 3.3370 ringgit, and that against the Thai currency between 33.82 baht and 33.89 baht.
In the international market, the exchange rate of the dollar against the Japanese yen mainly varied between 110.16 yen and 110.21 yen, while the euro moved between 1.4604 dollar and 1.4607 dollar against the greenback.
As on November 13, the London Inter-bank Offered Rates (LIBOR) against the US dollar were 4.62870 per cent for one month, 4.82000 per cent for three months, 4.74370 per cent for six months, 4.67560 per cent for nine months and 4.46580 per cent for twelve months.
The inter-bank call money rate repeated previous day's level sustaining stability despite withdrawal of cash through Bangladesh Bank (BB) bills and Bangladesh Government Treasury (BGT) bonds, fund managers said.
The market remained active and the rate in its extreme range moved between 6.50 per cent and 10.50 per cent maintaining the previous day's range.
In most deals, the rates moved between 6.50 per cent and 6.60 per cent against the previous day's range of between 6.50 per cent and 6.70 per cent, they said.
The borrowing of cash by some non-banking financial institutions at high rates from the inter-bank market to meet urgent demands of their clients forced the call rate to rise above normal trend in some stray deals, fund managers said.
The call rate stayed above the bank rate of 5.00 per cent in all deals that indicated higher than expected pressure on liquidity, fund managers said.
The central bank withdrew Tk 3.00 billion against 30-day BB bills at an interest rate of 7.36 per cent per annum.
Besides, it withdrew Tk 1.00 billion against 15-year BGT bonds at an annual interest rate of 12.94 per cent.