Treasury bills oversubscribed at 118pc in first three months

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) building in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By JAMES NGUNJIRI

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Summary

• Between January and end of March, the bills attracted total bids worth Sh369.47 billion with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) accepting Sh323.75 billion offers.
• Subscriptions for the 91-, 182-, and 364-day papers during the first quarter of 2018 came in at 94.5 per cent, 109.2 per cent and 130 per cent respectively.
• This compared with 84.9 per cent, 61.5 per cent and 78.6 per cent in quarter four of 2017 respectively

Treasury bills were overall oversubscribed during the first three months of the year, with the uptake coming in at 118.4 per cent up from 72.5 per cent recorded in quarter four of 2017.

Between January and end of March, the bills attracted total bids worth Sh369.47 billion with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) accepting Sh323.75 billion offers.

Subscriptions for the 91-, 182-, and 364-day papers during the first quarter of 2018 came in at 94.5 per cent, 109.2 per cent and 130 per cent respectively.

This compared with 84.9 per cent, 61.5 per cent and 78.6 per cent in quarter four of 2017 respectively.

Yields on the 91-day and 364-day papers declined by 10 basis points (bps) each to eight per cent and 11.1 per cent at end of last week, from 8.1 per cent and 11.2 per cent as at December 2017, respectively.

READ: Treasury bills uptake up on improved liquidity

The yield on the 182-day paper declined by 20bps to end the quarter at 10.4 per cent from 10.6 per cent at the end of the last quarter of 2017.

Analysts have said the government is under no pressure to borrow for this financial year.

“The government is currently ahead of its domestic borrowing target by 19.8 per cent, have met 72.9 per cent of their total foreign borrowing target for the current fiscal year... we expect interest rates to remain stable,” said analysts at Cytonn Investments.