13 July 2004	Tuesday	24 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 12: Hub Power Company (Hubco) made $45 million debt payment to international creditors on Monday. Four banks made the payment on behalf of Hubco. The private power company makes external debt payment every six months.

Bankers said debt payment by Hubco coupled with additional oil payments and debt payments by some other corporates kept the rupee under pressure even though the banks had purchased dollars for Hubco payment in advance. They said the rupee touched the intra-day low of 58.35 a US dollar but it closed unchanged over its weekend level of 58.23.

Bankers estimated total outflow of $100-$120 million foreign exchange from the system. The rupee has shed 16 paisa against the US currency so far this month coming down from 58.12 a dollar on June 30 to 58.28 on July 12.