KARACHI: As per the expectation of the market, the government rejected all bids for three-month treasury bills but raised money close to the target and much below the maturity amount at the auction held on Wednesday.

Experts said the local money market was flush with surplus liquidity after the State Bank of Pakistan provided Rs2.7 trillion in profit to the government, proving a game changer for the banking industry, which relies entirely on risk-free and high-yielding government securities.

After a long gap, the rejection of all bills at the Sept 18 auction caused yields to fall substantially.

“Secondary market yields are already down by 2-3 per cent from the last auction, with three-month yields now at 15.62pc, six-month at 14.47pc, 12-month at 13.34pc, 3-year at 12.14pc, 5-year at 11.98pc, and 10-year at 11.89pc,” said Topline Securities.

In today’s T-bills auction, with bids of Rs860bn, the government raised Rs244bn against a target of Rs250bn and a maturity of Rs341bn. The government once again rejected three-month bids. The cut-off yield for six-month papers is 14.39pc, and for 12-month it is 13.73pc.­

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024