The federal government Wednesday borrowed over Rs 1 trillion from banking sector through the auction for short-term bonds to meet its financial needs. Banks aggressively participated in the auction for T-bills, however the cut-off yield on short-term government papers remained stable. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted the auction for Market Treasury Bills (MTBs) on July 19, 2017 for the sale of 3-month, 6-month and 12-month bills. Overall, the SBP received bids amounting to Rs 1,085 billion with a realized value of Rs 1,064 billion.
Most of the bids were received for 3-month period as banks and other financial institutions are expecting changes in key policy rate in coming months and are reluctant to invest in long-term papers. The received bids included Rs 743.657 billion for 3-month, Rs 325.532 billion for 6-month and Rs 15.765 billion for 12-month. The federal government accepted bids amounting to Rs 1.066 trillion (Rs 1.046 trillion realized value). The borrowed amount is massive and higher than the target of Rs 650 billion set for this auction.
The cut-off yield of 3-month MTBs remained stable at 5.9910 percent with accepted bids of Rs 725.652 billion (realized amount). For the 6-month, bids worth Rs 315.573 billion were accepted at a cut-off yield of 6.0109 percent. Similarly, an amount of Rs 5.515 billion was borrowed through the auction for 12-month variety at 6.0286 percent.