China's central bank sold 100 billion yuan ($12.5 billion) of one-year treasury bills to selected banks, draining cash from the financial system to cool a surge in new lending that's fuelling an investment boom.

The amount is four times the 25 billion yuan of one-year bills that the People's Bank of China sold in a weekly auction yesterday. The central bank didn't identify the lenders who bought the securities, in a statement on its Web site today.

China is trying to rein in credit-fueled investment that's creating excess capacity, driving prices and profits down in some industries. New yuan lending in the first four months of 2006 totaled 1.58 trillion yuan ($198 billion), almost two-thirds of the central bank's target for the full year, contributing to accelerating production and money supply.

"Today's move means the central bank is punishing some banks, mainly the four biggest state-owned lenders, for not having restricted loans," said Lu Wenlei, a fixed-income analyst at Shenyin Wanguo Research and Consulting Co. in Shanghai.

China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China -- three of the big four state-owned lenders -- will buy 90 percent of the bills, Market News International reported yesterday, citing unidentified traders.

The securities sold today will yield 2.11 percent, the central bank said. That's less than the 2.48 percent yield on the bills auctioned yesterday, the highest in almost 15 months.

The central bank holds weekly auctions of treasury bills to drain local currency from the system and keep the yuan's exchange rate stable. The process is meant to control money supply and stem inflation.