T-bill rates rise across the board

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Treasury managed to raise less than two-thirds of its P8.5-billion borrowing target in yesterday’s auction of treasury bills, as it decided to reject some bids due to the high rates sought by banks.

Investors were apparently hoping for higher yields in anticipation of increased government borrowings.

T-bill yields ticked up across the board in yesterday’s auction, but the BTr chose to make partial awards at rates of up to only about 6 percent or within the range of secondary market rates.

The interest rate on the benchmark 91-day T-bill went up to 4.5 percent from 4.494 percent.

The 182-day bill fetched 4.658 percent or 1.6 basis points higher than the previous 4.574 percent.

At the same time, the yield on the 364-day debt paper went up by 6 basis points to 4.794 percent from 4.734 percent.

The bellwether issue was oversubscribed as investors tendered a total of P4.61 billion and the BTr awarded P2 billion, the size of its offer.

For the six-month issue, buyers tendered P3.7 billion against the offer of P3 billion, but the BTr awarded only P1.38 billion.

If the BTr issued 182-day bills as planned, the yield would have gone up by 19.8 basis points to 4.772 percent. –Ronnel Domingo, Philippine Daily Inquirer