March 20 (SeeNews) - Romania on Monday sold 326.9 million lei ($77.1 million/71.6 million euro) of Treasury notes maturing on July 26, 2027, slightly above target, central bank data showed.
The average accepted yield at the auction fell to 4.03% from 4.07% at a previous auction of government securities of the same issue held in February, the data indicated.
Demand for the T-notes, which carry an annual coupon of 5.80%, rose to 510.9 million lei from 391.9 million lei in February.
The issue will be reopened on Tuesday when the finance ministry hopes to raise 45 million lei in a non-competitive tender.
Commenting ahead of Monday's auction, Raiffeisen Bank said that given the long tenor of the issuance, the auction depends on the sentiment on external markets and on the appetite of foreign players for leu-denominated Government securities.
"In an environment of increasing yields and with additional internal risks generated by potential fiscal slippages, the outcome of today’s auction could be challenging. We recall that two auctions were already cancelled in March due to scarce demand," Raiffeisen analysts said in a daily market report on Romania.
On Friday, the Romanian leu weakened the most against the euro since October 2012, prompting analysts to think the central bank, BNR, might have increased its tolerance towards downward pressure on the domestic currency.
Details about the issue follow:
Auction date |
March 20 |
February 23 |
Amount offered (mln lei) |
300.0 |
300.0 |
Amount sold (mln lei) |
326.9 |
300.0 |
Total bids placed (mln lei) |
510.9 |
391.9 |
Bid-to-cover ratio |
1.97 |
1.30 |
Yield (%) |
4.03 |
4.07 |
Romania's finance ministry plans to auction 3.7 billion lei worth of in government securities in March, according to the debt issuance calendar for the month. The ministry also plans to sell an additional 375 million lei of government paper in non-competitive offers.
In February, the finance ministry sold 3.32 billion lei in domestic debt paper and an additional 315 million lei in non-competitive offers, below its initial target of 3.9 billion lei.
So far this year, the finance ministry has sold some 8.5 billion lei worth of leu bills and bonds.
At the beginning of March, the ministry said it plans to sell about 2.5-3.0 billion euro ($2.6-3.1 billion) worth of eurobonds on the international markets and some 48-50 billion lei worth of leu-denominated domestic debt this year.
(1 euro=4.5627 lei)