In the 22nd week of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Treasury Bills auction, investors showed strong appetite for the short tenor, with the paper being oversubscribed nearly four times.
The 91-day paper received applications worth KES 14.09 billion against an offer of KES 4.00 billion, translating to an overall subscription rate of 352.3%, compared 396.6% recorded in the preceding auction.
The strong demand of the short tenor underscores investors’ expectations of a sustained increase in yields amid escalating inflationary pressure stemming from the Middle East conflict.
Demand for the 182-day and 364-day papers weakened sharply. The 182-day paper received bids worth KES 1.05 billion against a target amount of KES 10.00 billion, representing a subscription rate of 10.5%, while the 364-day paper attracted bids amounting to KES 1.49 billion against a target of KES 10.00 billion, a subscription rate of 14.9%.
Overall, the CBK received applications of KES 16.64 billion, against a target amount of KES, recording an overall performance of 69.32%, down from 125.2% recorded in the last week’s auction.
CBK T-Bills Yields Edge Higher
Yields edged upwards compared to the previous auction, with the 182-day paper recording the largest increase, rising by 3.87 bps to 8.2500% from 8.2113%. The 91-day tenor yield rose for the seventh consecutive auction, up by 0.19bps to 8.3884%, while the 364-day paper yield nudged upwards by 3.85 bps to 8.6266%.
