The central bank injected a massive Rs947.55bn into the banking system on Friday, just two days after it raised Rs46.472bn from the auction of Pakistan Investment Bonds. It had also pumped in Rs32.3bn in an open market operation just a day before the PIB auction.

This brought the cumulative open market injections last week to Rs979.85bn.

Meanwhile, the central bank raised Rs19.964bn from three-year PIBs at a cut-off yield of 8.29pc, followed by Rs15.43bn from five-year PIBs at 8.7476pc and Rs11.078bn from 10-year PIBs at 9.5002pc.

Yet, banks and other institutions had shown almost twice the interest in the bonds, reflected from the fact that the SBP received total bids worth Rs97.603bn for the auction. Three-year PIBs had attracted the highest amount of Rs40.539bn, followed by five-year PIBs with Rs34.393bn and 10-year PIBs with Rs22.671bn. No bids were received for 20-year bonds.

Three-year Pakistan Investment Bonds fetched the highest amount of Rs19.964bn during the latest auction

According to the statement of position of all scheduled banks for the week ending March 13, investments of all scheduled banks stood at Rs5,639.485bn, up 0.21pc from the prior week’s figure of Rs5,627.514bn.

Investments of all commercial banks stood at Rs5,613.315bn in the week, against the preceding week’s figure of Rs5,600.942bn, showing a rise of 0.22pc. Investments of all specialised banks stood at Rs26.17bn in the week, against the preceding week’s figure of Rs26.572bn.

Gross advances by scheduled banks stood at Rs4,421.374bn in the week under review, down 0.23pc over the previous week’s figure of Rs4,431.565bn. Advances by commercial banks dipped 0.25pc to Rs4,276.69bn in the week, against the previous week’s figure of Rs4,287.571bn. Advances by specialised banks stood at Rs144.684bn in the week.

Total assets of all scheduled banks stood at Rs11,687.326bn in the week ending March 13, up 0.12pc over the earlier week’s Rs11,673.747bn. Total assets of all commercial banks stood at Rs11,509.361bn, also up 0.12pc over the previous week’s Rs11,495.276bn. Total assets of all specialised banks stood at Rs177.966bn in the week.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, March 30th , 2015

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