Capital Markets

Sh15bn bond issue hits T-bills uptake

cbk

Central Bank of Kenya building in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The half-successful primary bond auction last week dampened the uptake of short-term government securities that posted an overall performance of 51.54 per cent, weighed down by all the three tenors.

The low uptake of Treasury bills was a deterioration on the previous week when the auction recorded an overall performance of 63.71 per cent.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) received total bids of Sh12.36 billion against offers of Sh24 billion, with banker accepting Sh12.04 billion.

“Weighted average interest rate of accepted bids came in at 7.507 per cent (91-day), 8.450 per cent (182-day) and 9.579 per cent (364-day) papers,” the CBK indicated.

Analysts on Friday said the market was awash with liquidity as the Central Bank injected liquidity, which ideally would have buoyed Treasury bills performance.

The liquidity was, however, diverted to the 15-year paper by investors seeking better yield.

The lower yields at the short-end were also supported by the significant non-competitive bids.

The 91-day paper received bids worth Sh3.82 billion against an offer of Sh4 billion, a 95.75 per cent performance, with CBK accepting Sh3.78 billion.