KARACHI, Nov 14 The US dollar on Wednesday put Pakistani rupee at three-year low, forcing it to shed 22 paisas against the greenback which was the first market-oriented major devaluation of rupee during the last three years.

Dealers said the emergency imposed in the country has started reflecting negative consequences on the financial sector, disturbing the exchange rate equilibrium which has been in a balanced position for a few years.

Dealers said importers rushed for dollars willing to book at any rate, encouraging the dealers to keep on increasing the dollar rate which gained 0.3 per cent against Pakistani rupee on the day.

The dollar was traded at Rs61.22 against Rs60.99 on Tuesday which pushed the rupee at the lowest since October 2004.

The greenback slipped to Rs61.18 at the close of the market.

However, most significant factor was the outflow from the shares market which created a real impact on the exchange rage.

On Wednesday, $88 million fled out from the stocks, a sign of no-confidence over the shaking political situation of the country.

The inflows during the day were just $14.7 million while the outflow was 103.4 million showing a complete imbalanced investment in the shares market.

The inflow during October 2007 was record in terms of dollars investment in a single month and the country received $302 million in this month.

However, the first three months July-September, posted negative investment or the outflows were higher than inflows.

“The outflow of foreign investment from the shares market was solely because of political uncertainty which created doubts over the continuity of the high economic growth,” said Sami Khan, a research analyst at a brokerage house.

The rising oil bills were also behind the shortage of dollar in the market. The private sector has been importing crude oil for which they have to buy dollars from the local market. Oil prices have gone up to $95 a barrel which is more than 50 per cent higher than the prevailing prices before the end of fiscal 2006-07.

The State Bank data showed that while the reserves of the SBP have been rising since July, 2007, the reserves of the commercial banks have declined by $207 million to $2106.4 billion.

The SBP has passed on up to 25 per cent oil import bill to private sector and was planning to shift 100 per cent load to the private sector.

The dealers said while importers were in queue to buy dollar, exporters found it the best time to stop selling export proceeds for further increase in the prices.

“If exporters stop selling dollar even for a couple of days, they can earn up to 50 paisa a dollar which can translate into additional hundreds of millions of rupees for them,” said Asif Bhai, a currency dealer.

He also mentioned another factor of Hajj season. During the Hajj season, millions of dollars are required to be paid to the people who are flying to perform Hajj. Hajj flights started on Monday.

The dealers expressed surprise that the SBP was silent over sudden change in the exchange rate while the SBP has been frequently intervening in the market to support the rupee-dollar parity to keep the exchange rate stable.