THE government raised Rs78.34bn from Pakistan Invest­ment Bonds of various tenors during an auction on January 28. Following the 100bps cut in the policy rate on January 24, a marked decrease was witnessed in the cut-off yields for the bonds in the auction.

Meanwhile, the accepted amount was markedly lower than the total bids worth Rs291.508bn submitted by banks and other institutions.

Of the accepted amount, five-year PIBs fetched Rs70.211bn at a cut-off yield of 9.7469 pc, followed by three-year PIBs with Rs5.276bn at 8.8895pc, 10-year PIBs with Rs2.248bn at 10.0093pc, and 20-year PIBs Rs604.605m at 10.9995pc

Five-year Pakistan Investment Bonds fetched the highest amount of Rs70.211bn during the latest PIB auction

Of the total bids offered, three-year PIBs had attracted the highest amount of Rs130.874bn, followed by 10-year PIBs with Rs83.464bn, five-year PIBs with Rs76.565bn and 20-year PIBs with Rs604.605m.

Meanwhile, the central bank continued with its recent trend of pumping in liquidity into the banking system. It injected Rs610bn at 8.28pc in a seven-day contract during an open market operation on January 30.

According to the weekly statement of position of all scheduled banks for the week ending January 16, cash and balances with treasury banks of all scheduled banks rose 3pc to Rs693.185bn, against the earlier week’s Rs672.931bn.

Cash and balances with treasury banks of all commercial banks stood at Rs689.189bn in the week, against the preceding week’s figure of Rs667.612bn. Cash and balances with treasury banks of all specialised banks stood at Rs3.996bnin the week.

Investments of all scheduled banks stood at Rs5219.2bn in the week under review, against the preceding week’s figure of Rs5219.84bn, down 1.77pc.

Investments of all commercial banks in the week stood at Rs5184.628bn in the week, down 1.8pc from the preceding week’s figure of Rs5185.928bn. Investments of all specialised banks stood at Rs34.573bn in the week, against the preceding week’s figure of Rs33.912bn.

Gross advances by scheduled banks stood at Rs4460.985bn in the week ending January 16, a decline of 1.12pc over the previous week’s figure of Rs4465.831bn. Advances by commercial banks fell to Rs4321.053bn in the week against the earlier week’s level of Rs4326.141bn.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, February 2nd, 2015

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