The Ministry of Finance rewarded investors – Newspaper Kommersant No. 19 (7464) dated 02.02.

The beginning of the new month turned out to be successful for the Ministry of Finance – the department attracted 140 billion rubles on the public debt market, the maximum amount of funds since the beginning of the year. This was facilitated by the supply of inflationary OFZs, as well as a high level of liquidity in the banking system. However, for the successful placement of government bonds with a constant coupon, the ministry continues to pay fairly high premiums to investors.

After the break, the Ministry of Finance returned to the practice of placing three issues of government bonds – the issue of OFZ with a floating par value (OFZ-IN, linker) was again added to traditional securities with a constant coupon (OFZ-PD). The total demand for all issues amounted to 279 billion rubles, the maximum result this year. At the same time, the ministry satisfied almost 50% of demand by placing bonds for 140.2 billion rubles. at par, which, however, was also the best result this year.

The bulk of borrowings fell on OFZ-PD. Demand for 10-year and 19-year bonds differed insignificantly (110.6 billion rubles and 97.3 billion rubles), however, it exceeded the index of auctions a week earlier (see chart). “Kommersant” dated January 26).

As a result, the Ministry of Finance placed less long-term securities in the amount of 54 billion rubles. at a weighted average yield of 10.33% per annum. The volume of placement of longer OFZs amounted to more than 70.5 billion rubles. with a weighted average yield of 10.51% per annum.

“The increase in demand and the volume of OFZ placement is influenced by the growth of liquidity surplus in the banking sector and the decrease in fears of raising the Central Bank rate at the next meetings,” said Dmitry Monastyrshin, chief analyst at PSB.

At the same time, large bids traditionally dominated the auctions. According to Alexander Ermak, Chief Analyst of Fixed Income Markets of BC “Region”, in the case of ten-year securities for orders with a volume of 1 billion rubles or more. accounted for more than 78% of the placement volume. When placing nineteen-year securities for applications with a volume of 1 billion rubles. accounted for 98.8% of the placement volume. “For ten-year securities, the Ministry of Finance provided investors with a weighted average yield premium of 7 basis points. In the case of longer notes, the premium rose to 8 basis points,” notes Mr. Yermak. Vladimir Malinovsky, head of the debt market analysis department at Otkritie Investments, does not exclude the possibility that the number of speculative investors has increased, attracted by the increased premium, which can be realized almost immediately in the secondary auction.

At the same time, inflationary OFZs were also placed. “We attribute the addition of linkers to the desire of the Ministry of Finance to increase the amount of funds raised due to the variety of instruments offered,” notes Dmitry Monastyrshin. But the placement of these securities was less successful: with demand of 70.8 billion rubles. the issuer satisfied the bids for only 16 billion rubles, twice lower than the volume of borrowings at a similar auction two weeks earlier. The weighted average yield was 3.33% per annum.

In general, the placement had a moderate impact on the secondary market. Toward the end of the trading session on the Moscow Exchange, nineteen-year OFZs traded with a yield of 10.45% per annum, which is close to the level of Tuesday’s close. The yield on 10-year bonds rose by 3 basis points to 10.3% per annum. “If there had not been a large placement of new government debt, OFZ quotes on the secondary market could have grown under the influence of liquidity inflows,” Mr. Monastyrshin believes.

According to the results of four auction days held since the beginning of the year, the amount of funds raised by the Ministry of Finance amounted to about 350 billion rubles. Thus, the quarterly plan for borrowing (800 billion rubles) was fulfilled by almost 44%. “The issuer needs to place OFZs in the amount of about 64.3 billion rubles in the remaining auction days. weekly, which is 12% lower than the original auction schedule,” Mr. Yermak estimates.

Vitaly Gaidaev