91-day Treasury bill rate rises

MANILA  -The average rate on the benchmark 91-day Treasury bills increased by 10.6 basis points (bps) amid mixed results from the latest weekly auction held on Monday.

The cost for the government of borrowing through the three-month T-bills climbed to 5.704 percent from 5.598 percent last week.

Meanwhile, the average yield on the 182-day T-bills decreased by 4.5 bps to an average of 5.945 percent from 5.99 percent.

Also, the average rate on the 364-day T-bills increased by 3.1 bps to 6.325 percent from 6.294 percent.

“The auction was 2.7 times oversubscribed, with total tenders reaching P40.4 billion,” the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said in a statement.

Partial awards

And yet, the auction committee led by the BTr opted for partial awards for the 182-day and 364-day T-bills.

“With its decision, the [auction] committee raised P12.2 billion of the P15 billion total offering,” the BTr added.

Had the committee gone for a full award of the six-month debt paper, the average rate would have risen by 1.1 bps to 6.002 percent.

Secondary market

Similarly, if the offered 12-month T-bills were awarded fully, the average rate would have increased by 6.7 bps to 6.361 percent.

The results were also mixed when compared to prevailing rates at the secondary market.

At the Bloomberg Valuation Service (BVAL), the yield on the three month bill was 15.4 bps higher at 5.858 percent.

Also, the yield on the six-month bill was 11 bps higher at 6.055 percent. Meanwhile, the average rate for the yearlong bill was 5.5 bps lower at 6.27 percent. INQ