KARACHI: The race to buy maximum treasury bills reached peak as investors offered Rs1.380 trillion in the auction held on Wednesday.

On the other hand, the government raised Rs388bn as against the target of Rs300bn, leaving huge liquidity in the banking system.

Most of money was offered to buy 12-month instruments while the smallest amount of Rs4bn was offered for six-moth papers.

The investors offered Rs1.126btr for year-long T-bills – the highest sum for a single tenure – while the government raised Rs255bn at the cut-off rate of 13.33 per cent; down 19 basis points from 13.52pc.

In the previous auction, the cut-off yield for 12-month papers ahd increased by 39bps to 13.52pc.

Meanwhile, for the three-month instruments, the government raised 131bn out of bids worth Rs250bn at a rate of 13.38pc – edging lower by 3bps.

However, the yield inched up by 4bps to 13.34pc for six-months papers as only Rs2bn were raised through this tenor against bids of Rs4bn.

The T-bills have been attracting masisve investments this fiscal year, and have noticed an active participation of foreigners who have so far invested $3.1bn in domestic debt papers.

Due to the high interest rates, the banks are reluctant to extend loans to private sector while the large unused liquidity could cut profits of the banks.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2020