Gov’t sells P 25B in short-dated T-bills

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon / INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Bureau of the Treasury raised P25 billion from short-dated T-bills on Monday, while the government reported more local participants in the domestic capital market amid oozing liquidity in the financial system despite the pandemic.

The Treasury awarded all P5 billion in benchmark 91-day debt paper it offered at an average of 1.269 percent, down from 1.27 percent last week.

It also sold P8 billion in 182-day treasury bills at 1.541 percent, slightly up from 1.54 percent previously.

The P12 billion in 364-day IOUs offered fetched an annual rate of 1.796 percent, down from 1.81 percent.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the rates moved sideways as they tracked US securities.

Across the three tenors, tenders totaled P75.8 billion, making the auction thrice oversubscribed.

“Liquidity remains strong with P34 billion in redemption this week,” De Leon said.

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

Both institutional and retail investors have been showing greater participation in the government’s issuances such as “Premyo” and retail treasury bonds (RTBs), the Department of Finance said also on Monday.

In a statement, the DOF quoted De Leon as saying that the growing number of retail investors in fixed-income securities were enjoined by “the measures that had been put in place to make bonds accessible to small investors, and the successful financial literacy campaigns of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp.”

For instance, RTBs and Premyo bonds had been sold online and through apps.

—Ben O. de Vera INQ
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