THE state successfully borrowed P15 billion from the domestic market through the sale of Treasury bills (T-bills) as investors’ asking yields continued to fall.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) made a full award of T-bills tender on Monday, marking the fourth consecutive week that it was able to raise the whole programmed amount of the auction.
Investors’ average asking rates across all three tenors of T-bills continued to fall below secondary-market benchmark levels; also relatively lower than previous week’s auction.
The average rate for the 91-day T-bills settled at 5.575 percent, compared to its secondary market counterpart of 5.655 percent. However, it was slightly higher than its previous week’s average yield of 5.552 percent.
Investors sought rates between 5.5 percent and 5.6 percent for the 3-month T-bills.
The average yields for the 182-day and 364-day T-bills were both lower than their secondary market benchmark levels and their previous week’s rates.
The 182-day T-bills fetched an average rate of 5.96 percent versus the secondary market’s 5.987 percent and last week’s 5.966 percent.
Meanwhile, the 364-day T-bills’ yields averaged 6.190 percent, lower than the 6.193 percent secondary market benchmark level and 6.198 percent it posted last week.
According to the Treasury, the auction was 3.5-times oversubscribed, attracting P51.8 billion in total tenders.
Treasury data showed that the 364-day T-bills were the most oversubscribed at P21.116 billion followed by the 182-day government security with total bids of P15.983 billion. The 91-day T-bills fetched a total offer of P14.715 billion.
The Treasury has been able to make full awards of its T-bills auction so far this month. Monday’s results came after the BTr suffered its first partial award of Treasury bonds (T-bonds) for its borrowing program this month.
So far, the Treasury has been able to raise P51.187 billion from two auctions of T-bills and one tender of T-bonds. In comparison, it was P8.813 billion short of the P60 billion it programmed to borrow across the three total tenders.
For this month, the national government plans to borrow a total of P180 billion from the domestic market through the tender of government securities, according to the Treasury.
Image credits: Walter Eric Sy / Dreamstime.com
