Treasury bill rates rise on worsening Israel crisis

MANILA  -The government was unable to fully raise its target amount of short-term debt during Monday’s auction of Treasury bills (T-bills), as fresh geopolitical uncertainty following the attack on Israel over the weekend prompted investors to ask for higher rates.

The state borrowed only P12.5 billion out of P15 billion it was hoping to raise via T-bills, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.

Auction results showed total orders for the T-bills amounted to P22.6 billion, 1.5 times bigger than the size of the offer.

Some bids were rejected after investors demanded higher interest in reaction to the violence in Israel instigated by Palestinian extremist group Hamas.

Broken down, the Treasury accepted bids amounting to P4.79 billion out of the P5 billion that the government put on the auction block for the 91-day securities. The average rate settled at 5.806 percent, up by 10.8 basis points from 5.698 percent seen last week.

The government also made a partial award of the 182-day debt papers and only borrowed P4.4 billion, below the P5-billion target. The T-bill fetched an average yield of 6.115 percent, 9.2 bps above the 6.023 percent in the previous auction.

Meanwhile, the Treasury only raised P3.3 billion via the sale of 364-day debt notes, also lower than the P5 billion goal despite total tenders amounting to P8 billion. Average rate for the one-year T-bill settled at 6.305 percent, 9 bps higher than the 6.215 percent seen at last week’s offer. INQ