Treasury awards P 20B in T-bills as bids hit P 82B
The Bureau of the Treasury on Monday awarded all P20 billion in bills it offered amid a market awash with liquidity despite lingering uncertainty on the upcoming quarantine setup for Metro Manila and other areas that still have high COVID-19 cases.
The Treasury sold P5 billion in the benchmark 91-day debt paper at an average rate of 2.035 percent, down from 2.038 percent last week.
It also awarded P5 billion in 182-day IOUs at 2.101 percent, up from 2.099 percent during the previous auction.
As for the 364-day bills, P10 billion were sold at an annual rate of 2.35 percent, down from 2.378 percent previously.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said the average rates tracked inflation, which averaged 2.5 percent at end-May.
Across the three tenors, bids totaled P81.9 billion, making the auction more than four times oversubscribed.
But de Leon said investors were awaiting the decision on quarantine measures as President Duterte was expected to announce on Monday night if the government would keep, ease or again tighten the COVID-19 containment in Metro Manila and Cebu as cases remained relatively higher compared to other parts of the country.
De Leon said the Treasury would try to sell another P10 billion of the one-year securities through its tap facility window. INQ
