Yields stable in treasury bills auction

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted an auction of treasury bills worth Rs117.42 billion on Wednesday, exceeding the target of Rs85 billion.

According to a press release, bids were invited for three, six and 12-month T-bills. The central bank received bids worth Rs77.60 billion for three-month treasury bills. Bids worth Rs68.83 billion and Rs28.53 billion were submitted for six and 12-month treasury bills.

Of these, offers worth Rs42.833 billion were accepted for three-month T-bills. Bids worth Rs60.598 billion for six-month treasury bills and Rs13.988 billion for 12-month bills were accepted.

Cut-off yields for three-month and 12-month T-bills remained unchanged at 12.1036 per cent and 12.4568 per cent respectively. Yield on six-month treasury bills fell by 22 basis points to 12.3481 per cent.

Analysts commented that the stability in cut-off yields hinted that the State Bank will maintain the discount rate at 12.5 per cent in its upcoming monetary policy announcement on July 30.

In the previous auction on July 14, the State Bank had sold treasury bills worth Rs100.02 billion compared to offers of Rs198.15 billion, meeting the target of Rs100 billion set for the auction.

Cut-off yield for benchmark six-month treasury bills rose to 12.348 per cent compared to 12.30 per cent in the previous action. The central bank sold Rs43.6 billion worth of six-month paper against bids of Rs65.167 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2010.