The Bank of England said it provided themarket with a further 442 mln stg assistance during the morning
to offset a liquidity shortage it estimated at 1.60 billion
stg, revised up from 1.55 billion
    The bank bought outright eight mln stg of band one treasury
bills and five mln stg of band one bank bills at 10-3/8 pct.
    It bought a further 429 mln stg of bills for resale to the
discount houses on April 2 at an interest rate of 10-7/16 pct.
    So far today, the bank has given the market assistance
worth a total of 1.501 billion stg.
 REUTER
