Falling yields allow full award of Treasuries

THE Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) is now on a five-week streak in terms of making full awards of its Treasury bills (T-bills) auction as average yields continue to fall across the board.

The Treasury successfully raised the full P15 billion for the national government from the sale of T-bills as investors’ asking rates for the three tenors declined.

“The 91-day, 182-day and 364-day T-bills fetched average rates of 5.552 percent, 5.939 percent and 6.073 percent, respectively, all lower than the previous auction results and secondary market rates,” the Treasury said after the auction on Monday.

Last week’s average rates for the three tenors were 5.575 percent for 91-day, 5.96 percent for 182-day, and 6.19 percent for 364-day.

As of September 18, the secondary market benchmark levels for the government securities stood at 5.623 percent (91-day), 5.964 percent (182-day) and 6.164 (364-day).

This is now the fifth consecutive T-bills auction that the Treasury was able to make a full award of the government security as rates continued to fall consistently.

The rates for the 91-day debt paper ranged from 5.53 percent to 5.568 percent while the 182-day fetched 5.9 percent to 5.953 percent. The 364-day T-bills, meanwhile, fetched yields between 6.04 percent to 6.08 percent.

“The auction was 3.7 times oversubscribed, attracting P55.7 billion in total tenders,” the Treasury said.

Treasury data showed that the 364-day T-bills were the most oversubscribed at P21.503 billion while the 91-day and 182-day T-bills fetched P16.37 billion and P17.792 billion, respectively.

For this month, the national government plans to borrow a total of P180 billion from the domestic market through the tender of government securities, according to the Treasury.