T-bill rates down

MANILA, Philippines — Treasury bill (T-bill) rates declined across the board as investors swarmed yesterday’s auction following the recent decline in global oil prices.

The Bureau of the Treasury upsized the award to P19 billion from a programmed volume of P15 billion.

Rates for the 91-day T-bills slipped by 1.3 basis points to 1.25 percent, while that for the 182-day T-bills declined by 22.6 basis points to 1.555 percent. The Treasury awarded P7 billion each for the two tenors against a program of only P5 billion.

Likewise, yields for the 364-day T-bills dipped by 2.6 basis points to 1.857 percent.

According to the Treasury, bids filed for the securities hit P32.734 billion, P27.5 billion and P11.02 billion for the three-month, six-month and full-year T-bills, respectively.

Demand for the 91-day T-bills reached P71.254 billion, oversubscribing the auction by 4.75 times and exceeding last week’s total of P54.592 billion.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said investors swarmed the auction yesterday to make the most of a temporary liftoff in inflationary pressures due to the release of oil reserves.

“Markets flocked to short-term securities as oil prices ease with the release of reserves from stockpile,” de Leon said in a text message to reporters.

US President Joe Biden has announced that the US would release one million barrels per day of oil for the next six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Further, US allies also plan to release nearly 60 million additional barrels of oil from their reserves as part of a global effort to tame price surges.

On the domestic end, fuel prices dropped by up to P2.5 per liter for gasoline, P2 for diesel and P1.65 for kerosene.