CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on Egypt s pound rose to 9.5 percent on Tuesday from 9.103 percent on Monday at the start of a new central bank period for calculating reserves, traders said. Basically it s the first day of the reserve period and also today there is a certificates of deposit auction for one-week, one trader said. Rates typically jump at the start of each two-week reserve period or when the central bank holds lucrative certificates of deposit auctions that tend to draw trade away from the interbank market. The central bank was offering 7-day certificates of deposit worth LE 10 billion ($1.76 billion) on Tuesday. Five out of nine banks contacted by Reuters reported overnight deals at rates between 9.25 and 9.7 percent, compared with a range of 8.9 to 9.8 percent on Monday. Four banks reported one-week deals at rates between 9.4 and 9.8 percent, while no banks reported such deals on Monday. By 1 pm local time (1100 GMT), the pound had strengthened to LE 5.6960 to the US dollar from Monday s closing weighted average of LE 5.6966.
