The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) has made a full-award on the treasury bills auctioned yesterday amid strong market demand for the short-term IOUs.
The sale of the government securities was oversubscribed with total bids amounting to P49.3 billion, more than twice the P20 billion offering.
“Rates moved sideways for the one-year, and for the 91-day and 182-day we saw a reduction in the rates. Also, we’ve seen very strong liquidity on the onshore market, following the two to three times offer than the (initial) volume offered by the Treasury,” Rosalia de Leon, national treasurer, said after the auction at the BTr office in Manila yesterday.
“We had a very good auction, given the preference now of investors moving at the short end of the tenor, and also rates dipped despite higher inflation median coming from analysts’ expectations, 2.7 percent (against) 2.5 percent last December, so we are very satisfied with the results of the auction,” she added.
The 91-day paper fetched a rate of 3.187 percent, 11 basis points (bps) lower versus the previous average of 3.297 percent.
Demand was more than thrice at P20.947 billion, with a full award at P6 billion.
The 182-day securities had a rate of 3.523 percent, 7.4 bps down from the previous 3.597 percent.
Tenders amounted to P15.799 billion, more than twice oversubscribed, with the government selling P6 billion as planned.
Lastly, the one-year IOUs fetched a rate of 3.964 percent, 0.1 percent up versus the previous 3.963 percent.
The auction committee sold P8 billion as programmed, with tenders at P12.522 billion.
Meanwhile, de Leon said the retail treasury bond (RTB) offer has been met with overwhelming reception from investors, already breaching the P200 billion mark from the switch offer as well as from new money. The offer period for the RTB issuance will end on Thursday.
“We want to give opportunity to the individual investors. We recognize that we just completed the roadshows, so there should be some time for investors to make their own decisions whether they want to move to the new RTB or provide, tender new money for the RTB,” de Leon said.
She said the government is also on track to breaching the record P255 billion mark for RTBs.
