Investors shift funds from bonds to stock market

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Treasury missed its P9 billion target sale of Treasury bills on Monday, March 19, as investors preferred to park their funds in the local stock market.

At the auction of 91-, 182- and 364-day Treasury bills, the Treasury sold only P4.4 billion as the lure of the recent record highs at the Philippine Stock Exchange is prevailing against safer but lower-yielding Treasury debt papers.
 
“There’s a lot of excitement in the equities market,” National Treasurer Roberto Tan told reporters on Monday, March 19.  

Tan noted that the equities market is very liquid after the PSE index (PSEi) has breached the 5,100 mark.
 
Below was how the debt papers performed:

• 91-day T-bill: fetched an average rate of 2.382%, up by 23.5 basis points from the previous rate of 2.148%. Investors tendered P4.534 billion for this paper, higher than the P2.5-billion programmed debt sale but lower than the volume of bids in previous auctions
• 182-day T-bill: government rejected all bids. Investors tendered only P1.6 billion for the 6-month paper, below the P3-billion programmed debt sale for the paper
• 364-day T-bill: fetched an average rate of 2.808%, up from the previous rate of 2.704%. Investors opted for a partial award of P1.9 billion. Total tenders reached P4.380 billion for the 364-day debt paper

 
The March 19 debt sale is part of the government’s 1st quarter borrowing program of P117 billion. – Rappler.com