MANILA – Results were mixed during Monday's auction as the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) fully awarded bills for Treasury bills (T-bills) while partially awarding the re-issued 10-year Treasury bonds (T-bonds).
The 90-, 181-, and 364-day T-bills fetched average rates of 5.772 percent, 5.885 percent, and 5.983 percent, slightly higher than last week's average rate.
Last week, the average auction yield for the 91-, 182-, and 364-day tenor was slightly lower at 5.704 percent, 5.865 percent, and 5.965 percent, respectively.
"[This is] similar to the slightly week-on-week slight increase in most comparable short-term PHP BVAL (Bloomberg Valuation Service) yields after the latest pick up in the headline inflation data to 3.7%, the fastest in 3 months but still within the inflation target of the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas)," said Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation chief economist Michael Ricafort in a Viber message.
Ricafort said the higher average auction yield was also after the recent more hawkish signals from some Fed and other local monetary officials.
The T-bills auction attracted PHP39.9 billion in total tenders.
The BTr raised a total of PHP15 billion.
The re-issued 10-year T-bonds, meanwhile, which have a remaining term of nine years and nine months, fetched an average rate of 6.439 percent.
It was higher than the comparable 10-year PHP BVAL yield at 6.33 percent as of April 5, 2024.
"The said 10-year T-bond average auction yield [was] also higher by +0.212 compared to the previous 10-year T-bond average auction yield of 6.227% posted nearly a month ago or on March 12, 2024," said Ricafort.
"T-bill and 10-year T-bond auction yields [were] also higher after the US dollar/peso exchange rate hovered among 2-month highs at 56.40 levels that could lead to some pick up in import prices and overall inflation amid increased tensions between Israel and Iran that led global crude oil prices to new 5.5-month highs recently," he added.
Total submitted bids for the T-bonds amounted to PHP37.4 billion.
The BTr raised PHP20.6 billion out of the PHP30-billion offering, bringing the total outstanding volume for the series to PHP85.6 billion. (PNA)
