June 20, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1427

KARACHI, June 19: The State Bank would sell treasury bills worth Rs45 billion on Wednesday. The SBP in a press release on Monday said the auction target had been set at Rs45 billion.

Dealers said the target had been set in the wake of huge scheduled inflows due to maturity of the security papers. However, they see a possibility of increase in the interest rates.

In the last auction, the SBP increased T-bills rates that pushed the rates to a four-and-half-year high. The rates of three-month and five-month were changed but return on the 12-month paper remained the same.

The dealers said the Wednesday auction might see some upward change in return on the 12-month paper.