THE government made a partial award on its auction of Treasury Bills on Monday as a result of weak investors’ appetite for shorter-dated notes.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) only sold P3.52 billion worth of T-Bills from its original offering of P9 billion.

For the 91-day T-bills, the benchmark of banks when pricing its loans, fetched a rate of 2.88 percent or a mere 0.08 basis point higher the last time the paper was offered earlier this month.

The BTr made a full award of P1.5 billion for the said tenor while tenders reached P5.14 billion.

At the secondary market, the rate for the same tenor was at 3.15 percent or 27 basis points higher than the government rates.

The government, meanwhile, rejected all the P3.86 billion bids for the 182-day paper. If the Treasury accepted the bids, the rates would have gone as high as 3.708 percent or 126.4 basis points higher than the previous rate.

“The 182-day [bid] is considered somewhat throwaway. Even in the secondary market, it’s the same yield level as 364 days,” National Treasurer Roberto Tan said after the auction.

At the secondary market, the done deal for the six-month paper was at 3.125 percent.

Two weeks ago, the government also rejected the bids for the said tenor after rates increased.

Meanwhile, the Treasury only sold P2.026 billion worth of one-year paper or only about one half of the programmed P4 billion offer.

Yield for the 364-day paper stood at 3.219 percent, or higher by 30.8 basis points over the last time the same paper was offered.

Volume for one-year paper reached 7.69 billion or nearly two times oversubscribed.

“We accepted the 364 days on the basis of adjusting it with market, and that the volume is good enough,” Tan said.

Meanwhile, Tan said the planned bond exchange Tuesday was put on hold after the government has not yet secured the necessary authority from the Office of the President.

“We will get the Monetary Board issuance on the planned debt swap [early this week],” Tan said.

Deputy Treasurer Eduardo Mendiola earlier said the government will be exchanging existing debt paper shorter than 10 years for new 10-year and 20-year bonds.

The government swapped around P190 billion of new 2020 and 2035 bonds in December with coupon rates of 5.875 and 8.125 percent, respectively.