MANILA - With debt market players uncertain about the supply of government securities in the local market, bidders once again tried to increase their bids during the  Treasury bills (T-bills) auction on Monday.

National Treasurer Roberto Tan confirmed this in an interview with reporters. “Investors are not fully certain about a number of things particularly the new supply domestically. Once they get a clear picture we can expect better rates from them.”

Last Thursday, the Bureau of Treasury announced that its domestic borrowings will increase to P110.5 billion in the third quarter of the year from the programmed borrowing of P104.5 billion in the second quarter.

Tan said that in the T-bills bidding today, they just alligned the yields of the T-bills issued today with the rates in the secondary market. “The expectations are too high so we just aligned it with the rates in the secondary market. What we awarded are very much within the secondary market rates,” Tan said.

Amounts and yields awarded were

• 91-day T-bills: 4.5%, almost unchanged from 4.494% last June 15. Tenders reached P4.61 billion and the auction committee made a full award of P2 billion.
• 182-day T-bills: 4.658% from 4.574%. Bids amounted to P3.7 billion and the committee made a partial award of P1.38 billion.
• 364-day T-bills: 4.794% from 4.789%. Tenders for the P3.5-billion issuance reached P6.5 billion and the auction committee only accepted P1.95 billion.