Shares of PNB Gilts Ltd. surged nearly 17 percent to an intraday high of Rs 91.4 on Friday after the company’s board approved the proposal to make a foray into the foreign exchange business.

Share Market Live

NSE

The stock is now trading close to its all-time high of Rs 94.65, which it hit on June 30, 2021.

PNB Gilts on Thursday informed bourses that its board has approved a proposal for obtaining necessary memberships of various institutions or corporate bodies and fulfil other pre-requirements for undertaking the forex business.

The company in July this year received the licence from the Reserve Bank of India’s to act as an ‘Authorised Dealer – Category-III’, which allows an entity to undertake foreign exchange business.

The company in its annual report for 2022-23 had stated that it was exploring non-core business opportunities, such as the foreign exchange market, equity market and other fee-generating business segments to create revenue diversification.

With the grant of licence as an ‘Authorised Dealer category III’, the company would seek new opportunities in the area of Foreign Exchange markets, which will further strengthen our non-core business, it had stated.

As a primary dealer, PNB Gilts’ main activities entail supporting government borrowing programmes via underwriting of government securities issuances and trade in fixed-income instruments.

PNB Gilts is one among the 21 primary dealers licensed by the Reserve Bank of India. In an interaction with CNBC-TV18 on September 22, Vikas Goel of PNB Gilts said that they have a balancesheet of Rs 2,000 crore of government securities.

He had mentioned in the interaction that they will be in the forex market by the end of this year. The stock had gained 20 percent on September 22 when JPMorgan announced that India's government bonds will be included as part of their Emerging Market Bonds index.

PNB Gilts shares were trading 16.44 percent higher at Rs 89.25 apiece on BSE at 11:24 AM.

(Edited by : Hormaz Fatakia)

First Published:Oct 6, 2023 12:15 PM IST