THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) made a full award of the short-term securities it offered on Friday amid robust liquidity.

The BSP borrowed P90 billion as planned via the 28-day bills as the offer was almost twice oversubscribed, with tenders reaching P154.9 billion.

The awarded volume on Friday was lower than the P99 billion accepted in the previous offer on Monday. However, that auction was undersubscribed, as the bids worth P99 billion fell short of the P100 billion on the auction block.

Accepted yields for the BSP bills auctioned off on Friday ranged from 1.62% to 1.725%, a narrower band compared to the 1.603% to 2% range seen earlier this week.

This brought the average rate of the bills to 1.6683%, up 2.81 basis points (bps)from the 1.6402% seen on Monday.

“The auction results continue to show that, with the ongoing offering of retail Treasury bonds (RTB) by the Bureau of the Treasury, there is a general search for yields among market participants. Nevertheless, liquidity in the financial system remains ample,” said BSP Deputy Governor Francisco G. Dakila, Jr. in a statement on Friday.

“Looking ahead, the BSP’s monetary operations will remain guided by the latest liquidity condition and market developments,” Mr. Dakila said.

The higher yield was mainly due to the climb in global oil prices and the weakening of peso against the greenback, Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), said via Viber.

“Ongoing RTB offering could have also siphoned off some of the excess liquidity from the financial system,” Mr. Ricafort added.

The government is currently selling three-year RTBs at a coupon of 2.375%. During the rate-setting auction on Feb. 9, the Bureau of the Treasury raised an initial P221.218 billion, above the programmed P30 billion, as bids stood at P284.183 billion.

The offering is set to run until March 4, unless ended earlier. — B.M. Laforga

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