May 11, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1427

KARACHI, May 10: The treasury bills auction on Wednesday failed to attract banks and bids offered for the bills remained far beyond the target set by the State Bank.

The tight money market did not allow the banks to participate in the auction and only one bid of Rs100 million was offered for the benchmark six month T-bills. No change in cut-off yield was offered by the SBP.

The SBP received total bids worth Rs2.4 billion against a pre-auction target of Rs6 billion.

The central bank said it sold Rs96 million of six-month bills without any change in the cut-off yield. The SBP also did not change the cut-off yield on three-month and 12-month papers. It sold Rs98.17 million of three-month and Rs459.7 million of 12-month bills.