Treasury bill award upsized as rates pushed lower

The government raised more than its programmed amount of Treasury bills (T-bills) at Monday's auction as strong demand for short-term securities pushed yields lower, with investors factoring in weaker-than-expected economic growth ahead of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' (BSP) policy meeting later this month.

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The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) awarded P37.8 billion in T-bills, exceeding the P27-billion offer after bids rose to P176.8 billion from P156 billion at the auction last week.

In response to the heavy demand, the Auction Committee doubled its acceptance of noncompetitive bids across all tenors to P7.2 billion each, the Treasury said in a statement. Average yields for all maturities fell from the previous week's auction to below secondary market levels.

The Treasury awarded P12.6 billion in 91-day T-bills, above the P9-billion plan, as bids reached P62.1 billion. The three-month paper fetched an average rate of 4.579%, down 8.7 basis points (bps) from 4.666%. Accepted yields were 4.548% to 4.593%.