PARIS - TWO key interest rates, Libor and Euribor, stayed at high-distress level on Friday, unmoved by wave after wave of official action to shock global lending markets into life.

But one other benchmark rate, the rate for money lent overnight, dropped sharply, signalling a sudden easing and a change in sentiment towards very short-term risk.

The so-called Libor rate for dollars lent for three months rose to 4.8187 percent from 4.7500 per cent on Thursday.

The three-month Euribor rate, the reference in the eurozone, fell slightly to 5.381 per cent, but still near the 5.393 per cent reached on Thursday, which set a record since it was created at the beginning of 1999.

The London interbank offered rate (Libor) for overnight dollars dropped to 2.46 per cent, having risen above 5.0 per cent, after central banks around the world cut their benchmark intervention rates by half a percentage point. -- AFP