Partial bids awarded as yields ask still high

TREASURY bill (T-bill) yields rose on Monday, prompting the government to partially award bids for short-dated securities for the third time this month.

- Reine Juvierre S. Alberto

During the public auction, the Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) auction committee saw mixed results, with the 364-day tenor being the only one not fully awarded.

The Treasury raised the full amount of P9 billion each from 91-day and 182-day debt papers, while it awarded only P3.705 billion for the 364-day tenor.

In total, the Treasury raised P21.705 billion out of its intended P27 billion amount to borrow from the domestic market.

This marks the third partial award in March, as investors continued to demand higher yields.

The auction was 1.36 times oversubscribed as total demand reached P36.748 billion.

Yields, meanwhile, climbed across all tenors for the fourth straight week, according to Treasury data.

The 91-day T-bills fetched an average rate of 5.004 percent, up by 10.4 basis points, from the 4.9 percent recorded in last week’s auction.