CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on Egypt s pound edged down fractionally to 8.805 percent on Thursday from 8.812 percent on Wednesday as many banks steered clear of central bank deposit auctions, traders said. They said rates were depressed in the absence of auctions for certificates of deposit, and that traders were still unenthusiastic about entering new deposit auctions. There is liquidity in the market today as banks are not interested in the deposit auctions, a trader said. The Central Bank was auctioning LE 8.1 billion of 55-day regular deposits but banks continued to shy away then because they are not tradable, traders said. Banks tend to revert to trade on the interbank market in the absence of the higher-yielding short-term central bank CD auctions, depressing rates. Five out of 10 banks contacted by Reuters reported overnight deals at rates between 8.8 and 8.95 percent, the same range as on Wednesday. No banks reported dealing in one-week money, but one bank said it had dealt 10-day paper at 8.95 percent. By 2 pm local time, the pound had weakened slightly to LE 5.6952 to the US dollar from Wednesday s closed weighted average of LE 5.6951 pounds.
