T-bills fetch mixed results

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) yesterday fully awarded 91-day and 182-day Treasury-bills, but partially awarded 363-day securities amid higher rates asked by investors.

During yesterday’s auction, the Treasury successfully sold P5 billion worth of 91-day Treasury bills at an average rate of 3.323 percent, up 2.7 basis points from the 3.296 percent recorded in the previous auction.

Healthy demand met the auction with P8.92 billion in total bids, almost twice the original issue size.

The BTr also raised P4 billion from the sale of 182-day T-bills at an average rate of 3.714 percent, 3.7 basis points higher than the 3.677 percent fetched by the same securities last week.

Total tenders reached P7.231 billion, higher than the original offering of P4 billion.

On the other hand, the BTr awarded only P3.369 billion worth of 363-day securities, lower than the P6 billion offering, after it capped the accepted rates at 4.35 percent.

As a result, the debt instruments were able to fetch an average rate of 4.324 percent, 7.8 basis points up from last week’s 4.246 percent.

The auction was likewise oversubscribed with total bids reaching P7.839 billion.

“We are trying to temper the increase in terms of the one-year (securities) because if you notice, the inflation print last May was 4.6 percent vis-a-vis the expectation consensus of 4.9 percent. Also, the BSP said inflation may be tapering off already, and it might have already reached the peak,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said.

“So there is basically no need for investors to ask for higher rates, so we cut it at that level,” she said.

Meanwhile, the national treasurer said the government’s recent retail treasury bond (RTB) offering received good reception, with total issue size reaching P121.765 billion.

“That’s within our expectation given the rates for the three years that we offered,” she said.

As for the planned issuance of Samurai bond or yen-denominated securities, de Leon said the BTr is in the process of securing internal approvals.

She said the issuance would  depend on market conditions, but the Treasury is targeting to conduct the fund raising activity by the end of July or the first week or August.