KARACHI, Nov 21: The State Bank on Monday injected Rs22.3 billion into the liquidity-starved money market where rates stayed at the highest level. The liquidity position showed that the money market was still under pressure of scarcity started from the beginning of Ramazan. The SBP conducted an open market operation (OMO) on Monday and injected the liquidity at the rate of 8.5 per cent, just close to the discount rate of nine per cent. The liquidity was injected for three days.

The overnight rate stood at 8.9 per cent in the market and banks were expecting the same rate in near future.

The SBP also invited tenders for the sale of treasury bills on Wednesday and set a target of Rs90 billion. The huge target was set in the wake of inflows of the same amount through the maturity of security papers.

Analysts said the outflow of the same amount would again push the rates at the same level and the market would be in dire need of injection of liquidity.

They said that since the SBP was maintaining a tight liquidity position, there was no chance for change in the cut-off yield of T-bills in the next auction.