THE Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) fully awarded P15 billion at its latest auction for Treasury bills (T-bills), with the investing market seen to be posting liquidity.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said the auction committee received a very healthy auction on Monday after the market took its cue from monetary authorities. Last week the Monetary Board announced a 50-basis-point hike to overnight reverse repurchase interest-rates.
“After the 50-basis point [increase]—and there are also maturities because we have about P86 [billion] or P87 billion for August 20—there is a lot of liquidity,” de Leon said. “So there will be a lot of liquidity in the system.”
Tenders for the 91-day T-bill reached P11.665 billion resulting to a full award of P4 billion with average annual rates settling at 3.244 percent. This, however, was a decrease of 4.6 basis points from the 3.290 percent in the previous auction.
The 182-day IOU was awarded P5 billion with tenders reaching P20.910 billion and the average annual rates settling at 4.117 percent. Compared to the previous auction rate of 4.186 percent, Monday’s auction reflected a contraction of 6.9 basis points.
“At least [now] there is no uncertainty about further rate hikes by the BSP; so more or less [the rate hike provided] a calming effect right now in the market,” de Leon said. Prior to the interest-rate hike, everybody was guessing if there would be another rate hike and whether it would be 25 basis points or 50 basis points, she added.
For the 364-day tenor, tenders reached P16.833 billion with the BTr awarding the full P6 billion on offer. The average annual rate settled at 4.892 percent posting a decrease of 0.7 basis points, from the 4.899-percent rate in the previous auction for the government security.