A total of P1.5 billion of the bills were on sale and tenders totalled P1.46 billion.

Banks offered an average rate of between 3.809 percent and 3.619 percent, against the 3.672 percent the bills were sold at on Nov. 19. Traders said the government would have been looking at least for a 10 basis point drop.

For the rest of the T-bill offerings yields declined, helped by the government’s rejection of some bids seeking higher interest rates on the debt securities.

The BTr initially planned to cancel the treasury bill auction, but opted to pursue the sale to inject additional liquidity into the market.

"The ones who are holding the bills right now want to retain their gains, so there’s supply scarcity," Roberto Tan, finance undersecretary and acting national treasurer, said.

But the results of the auction suggest that investors aren’t really interested in buying new treasury bills, Tan added.

The national treasury rejected some bids for one-year paper and all tenders for 91-day paper, unwilling to pay the yields sought by the bidders.

Tenders for the R6 billion offering, which was partially awarded, totalled P8.16 billion, with nearly half going to the 182-day bill.

The yield on the 182-day bill eased to 4.637 percent from 4.692 perent, while that on the one-year paper was brought down to 5.558 percent from 5.567 percent.

Had the government accepted all bids, the yield on the 91-day paper would have risen to 3.809 percent from 3.672 percent, while the 364-day billion would have risen to 5.667 percent.

Many in the market expected yields to ease on all tenors because of prospects of further interest rate cuts.

In the secondary market yesterday, the yield on three-month government securities closed at 4.154 percent while that of one-year paper ended the day at 5.685 percent.