With the market having more cash than fund managers can deploy, Treasury bill rates on Monday went down slightly compared to previous week’s auction as bids were awarded in full by the auction committee.

The rate for 91-day T-bills averaged 3.224 percent, 4.6 basis points lower than the registered 3.290 percent last week.

A 6.9 basis points drop was recorded for 182-day T-bills to 4.117 percent versus the 4.186 percent from the previous week.

On the other hand, 364-day T-bills averaged 4.892 percent, settling lower by 0.7 basis points from the preceding week’s 4.899 percent.

National Treasurer Rosalia De Leon said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas decision to increase its policy interest rates by 50 basis points brought a calming effect in the market as this erased uncertainty on further rate hikes.

De Leon also added that there is a lot of liquidity of around P86 to P87 billion in maturities for 20 August, post-announcement of the Central Bank’s rate hike.

In all, a new record-high in terms of bid-to-cover ratio was set in Monday’s auction reaching a total tender of P49.4 billion oversubscribing the P15 billion offering thrice.