T-bills fetch mixed results

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) yesterday raised P26 billion as rates for 91-day and 364-day securities went down, while yields for 182-day debt papers moved slightly upward.

During yesterday’s auction, the 91-day Treasury T-bills, fetched an average rate of 2.046 percent, 1.2 basis points lower than the 2.058 percent recorded in the previous auction.

The P5 billion offering was more than three times oversubscribed with total tenders amounting to P17.35 billion. This allowed the auction committee to double the accepted non-competitive bids for the securities, upsizing the awarded volume to P7 billion.

On the other hand, the 182-day T-bills traded sideways, moving up by 0.4 basis point to 2.118 percent from 2.114 percent last week.

The P5 billion offering was fully awarded as total bids reached P15.55 billion.

Lastly, rates for the 364-day debt papers averaged at 2.42 percent, 8.8 basis points lower than last week’s 2.508 percent.

Robust demand met the P10 billion offering as tenders reached P51.095 billion, prompting the auction committee to also double the accepted non-competitive bids. This resulted in the award of P14 billion worth of one-year debt papers instead of the initial size of P10 billion.

Overall, the BTr was able to sell P26 billion worth of securities during yesterday’s auction, higher than the original offer size of P20 billion.

In a text message to reporters, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the results of the auction reflect the market’s continued preference for government securities, with a slight bias towards longer tenors.

“Sentiment continues to be in safe assets but (investors) try to stretch the yield with one-year tenor,” she said.

Given the strong demand from investors, De Leon said the auction committee decided to open the tap facility for one-year T-bills, with a total volume of P10 billion.

She said the government also remains “watchful of developments and risk return tolerance of investors” to determine if there is an opportunity to conduct another jumbo issue or retail treasury bond offering this year.