The Central Bank of Kenya building in Nairobi. file photo | nmg
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has
announced that the 182-day Treasury bill will be back on offer this week
after the State agent took the uncharacteristic move of suspending
sale.
The six-month paper has not been auctioned in the
last eight weeks, as the Treasury tried to spread maturity
concentration risk across the three-month and one-year papers.
“Please note the 182-day Treasury bill will be on offer valued date May 8, 2017,” the CBK said in a notice.
The
CBK had opted not to issue the heavily oversubscribed 182-day T-bill in
early March, to avoid heavy maturities in six months by pushing
investors to bid on the 91-day and 364-day papers.
At
the time, the CBK had absorbed Sh87.10 billion against the Sh30 billion
the paper offered in the previous five auctions. During the period, the
Treasury had only raised Sh25.2 billion in the 364-day paper and Sh12.9
billion in the 91-day, out of the targeted Sh30 billion and Sh20 billion
respectively.
This meant that the CBK had been left
facing the prospect of having debt maturities pile up in six months’
time, instead of the usual even spread between the three papers —
commonly referred to as concentration risk in the money market.
Cytonn
Investments analysts in a weekly note said yields on T-bills were
relatively unchanged in April, with the 91-day increasing to 8.8 per
cent from 8.7 per cent while the 364-day paper remained unchanged at
10.9 per cent.
“The CBK has remained disciplined in
stabilising interest rates in the auction market by rejecting bids
priced above the market price, with the overall bids acceptance rate in
April declining marginally to 79.2 per cent, compared to 82.1 per cent
in March,” said Cytonn.
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