CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on Egypt s pound held broadly steady at 8.4 percent on Thursday from 8.413 percent on Wednesday, after a central bank auction in the previous session boosted demand, traders said. Most banks entered the auction on Wednesday for 6-day Central Bank Notes worth LE 8 billion ($1.4 billion), and its effects carried through to Thursday because more bids had been accepted than they had expected, traders said. There was an auction yesterday for 6-day notes and it definitely affected the interbank rate. The central bank took more bids than we thought they would, one trader said. Four out of 11 banks contacted by Reuters had dealt overnight rates between 8.35 and 8.5 percent, compared with a range of 8.4 to 8.45 percent on Wednesday. None of the banks had dealt one-week money on Thursday, or during the previous session. On the foreign exchange market, by 11:00 GMT the pound had strengthened slightly against the dollar to 5.7314 from Wednesday s general weighted average of 5.7317. Reuters
