Treasury bonds gain market share

TIRANA, Oct. 29 – Treasury bonds increased their market share in the third quarter of 2012. The secondary market of government securities was dominated by transactions in short-term instruments (T-Bills) at 60.6 percent in the first three quarters of 2012, down from 78.25 percent in the first half of the year, according to the Financial Supervisory Authority. Long-term instruments (treasury-bonds) which in the first half of 2012 accounted for 21.75 percent rose to 39.5 percent in Jan-Sept. 2012. The Authority says that in terms of the number of transactions, 97 percent of all transactions in the secondary market of government securities were in T-Bills. Participation in the government securities secondary market was dominated by individual investors, who performed about 98.6 percent of all transactions in the market.
T-bill yields registered another drop in the latest auction held by the Bank of Albania, positively reflecting the reduction of the key interest rate by 0.25 percent to 4 percent last July. Data show 12-month T-bill yields dropped to an average of 6.78 percent in the latest Oct.9 auction, down from 6.88 percent in the previous auction and a record 7.5 percent last March, registering the lowest rates for this year.