Treasury fully awards P15B in T-bills

The Bureau of the Treasury fully awarded the P15 billion in treasury bills offered yesterday on robust market demand for short-dated securities amid tensions between the United States and North Korea.

The Treasury accepted all P6 billion in 91-day IOUs at an average rate of 2.161 percent. The benchmark treasury bills maturing on Nov. 15 generated P16.2 billion in tenders.

Also, the Treasury awarded P5 billion in 182-day debt paper at a yield of 2.577 percent. Investors tendered P6.2 billion for the bills maturing on Feb. 14 next year.

The Treasury also sold P4 billion in 364-day government securities at a rate of 2.946 percent. Bids for the IOUs maturing on Aug. 15 next year reached P9.9 billion.

The Treasury said the average rates “came in below secondary market levels across all tenors amid healthy market demand.”

Tenders totaled P32.2 billion, making the auction twice oversubscribed.

“We see a healthy demand on the short end of the curve. We’ve also seen, except for the 182-day T-bills, marginal decline in terms of the rates the banks offered, so this really indicates that there is still the demand on the short end,” National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon told reporters after the auction. —BEN O. DE VERA