T-bill rates decline across the board

Amid lingering global economic uncertainties and declining domestic rates, short-dated treasury bills continued to appeal to investors, allowing the Bureau of the Treasury to sell P24 billion on Monday.

The Treasury awarded P7 billion each—higher than the P5-billion offering for both —in the benchmark 91-day as well as 182-day securities.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said they doubled the noncompetitive bids accepted for the two shorter tenors as the rates were very low.

The three-month debt paper was sold at 1.024 percent, down from 1.058 percent last week, while the six-month IOUs fetched an average rate of 1.453 percent, down from 1.499 percent.

The Treasury also awarded P10 billion in 364-day bills at an annual rate of 1.745 percent, down from 1.759 percent previously.

De Leon said the Treasury opened its tap facility window to sell another P5 billion in the one-year securities to the 11 government securities eligible dealers (GSEDs) market makers.

Across the three tenors, tenders totaled P112.1 billion, making the P20-billion offering 5.6 times oversubscribed.

De Leon attributed the robust demand to too much liquidity and preference for treasury bills as investors were “risk-averse with lingering uncertainties on the pandemic, United States President Donald Trump contesting the US election results and Senate runoff elections in Georgia, plus the fate of the bigger stimulus package.”

The Treasury will next raise funds from local sources through the second “premyo” bonds offering, which will run from Nov. 11 to Dec. 11. —Ben O. de Vera INQ