CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on the Egyptian pound rose to 8.6125 percent on Thursday from 8.55 percent on Wednesday after central bank auctions drained liquidity from the market, traders said. "Most of the banks are bidding aggressively in the central bank auctions so it s a little bit short, one trader said. The central bank took LE 8.2 billion ($1.43 billion) from the market in an auction of notes this week, with the average yield at 8.679 percent. The bank offered a further LE 1 billion in an auction of 364-day T-bills on Thursday but that did not affect the market because banks need not settle till Tuesday, when they start a new two-week period for calculating bank reserves. Four out of nine banks contacted by Reuters had dealt overnight, citing rates between 8.4 and 8.65 percent, compared to rates between 8.35 and 8.6 percent on Wednesday. None of the banks had dealt one-week money. On Wednesday only one bank said it had dealt one-week, at 8.7 percent. At 11:00 GMT on the foreign exchange market, the pound had weakened slightly to LE 5.7345 to the dollar, compared to Wednesday s closing weighted average at LE 5.7336 to the dollar. Reuters
