MANILA, Philippines — The peso exchange rate stands at P43.125 to the US dollar, the closing rate last Friday at the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. (PDEx). The weighted average rate stands at P43.187.

91-day aT-bill yield at 1.889%

The Bureau of Treasury rejected all bids for 182-day and 364-day treasury bills at an auction yesterday but allowed the yield on 91-day paper to rise. Total tenders for the P9 billion of bonds offered reached only P8.03 billion.

The yield on the 91-day paper rose to 1.889% from 0.568%. The yield on the 182-day treasury bills would have risen to 2.025% from 0.950% had the national treasury accepted the bids for the paper, while that on the 364-day paper would have climbed to 3.294% from 2.032% had the government accepted bids for it.

N.P.C. awards 4 fuel products

Four contracts worth more than P1.4 billion have been awarded to three oil companies recently to meet the fuel requirements of the National Power Corporation’s (NPC) generation facilities for the months of April to June this year.

NPC emphasized in its tender notice that the fuel supply will be for its facilities under Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) and barges for the specified three-month period. Of the deals closed, the chunk was cornered by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation for aggregate P605.251 million comprising of two contracts.

The first award to Shell was on March 30 this year for P155,809,503; while the latest was April 13 to the tune of P449,352,302. The other contract worth P296,641,479 was given to Filpride Resources Inc. of the Villavicencio group. (MMV)

B.I.R. misses target in April

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the government's main tax agency, is on track to meeting this year's collection target despite the lower than programmed tax take in April, which was its highest monthly collection goal for the year.

In a statement released yesterday, BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said the agency's tax collections in January to April this year reached P302.94 billion, slightly higher by P781 million compared with the target of P302.16 billion for the period. (CSL)

PSE profit rises to P91 M

The Philippine Stock Exchange reported a 10.66 percent improvement in net income to P91.3 million in the first quarter of 2011 from P82.51 million in the same period last year. In a disclosure, the PSE said its revenues went up by 17.18 percent to P218.4 million from P186.38 million because almost all components of income increased.

 Listing related income rose 14.4 percent mainly because the listing fees from initial public offerings and additional listings amounted to P47.7 million from P41.6 million in the first quarter of 2010. (JAL)