A person counting money. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
Normalcy is expected to return in the Treasury bills auction following under-performance witnessed last week as most investors participated in the infrastructure bond, oversubscribed by 53.04 per cent.
Treasury bills were undersubscribed with the overall subscription rate coming in at 66.05 per cent, compared to 72.6 per cent recorded the previous week.
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) accepted a total of Sh15.3 billion out of the Sh15.8 billion worth of bids received, against the Sh24 billion on offer.
“With an improved market liquidity and an absence of an immediate tap sale, normalcy in the Treasury bills segment is likely to return in the next auction,” said analysts at Genghis Capital.
The government had earlier accepted Sh42.02 billion from the infrastructure bond and market analysts said that it had a further headroom for an additional Sh8 billion in reopened sale.
They further said there was easing in the liquidity crunch as the CBK had engaged in mop-up operations in the early part of the week.
The subscription rates for the 91-, 182-, and 364-days papers came in at 108.4 per cent, 48.59 per cent and 66.54 per cent respectively.
The CBK accepted the entire Sh4.3 billion of bids received for the three-month paper, against Sh4 billion on offer.
It absorbed all the Sh4.8 billion worth of bids received from the six-month paper, against a target of Sh10 billion, while the one-year paper attracted bids worth Sh6.6 billion with the Treasury absorbing Sh6.1 billion from that.