CAIRO, July 19 (Reuters) - Egypt's central bank held the pound stable at 8.78 to the dollar at its weekly foreign exchange auction on Tuesday, bankers said.

The bank announced earlier on Tuesday that it would be selling its usual quota of $120 million at its regular FX auction but has yet to announce the official rate.

The bankers, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak on the matter, said dollars were sold at the current rate.

Egypt is contending with an acute dollar shortage that is hampering trade, and pressure is mounting on the central bank to devalue the currency for the second time this year.

Egypt devalued the pound by about 14 percent in mid-March in an effort to crush a black market for dollars that has burgeoned amid the shortage. But the black market rate has since depreciated further, putting renewed pressure on the central bank to take further action.

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; writing by Eric Knecht)