MOSCOW: The Russian Finance Ministry sold only a third of the 30 billion roubles of five year OFZ treasury bonds on offer at an auction on Wednesday, with demand dampened by concerns over Japan's nuclear crisis.
The ministry had offered no premium to the market as it is close to fulfilling its issuance plans for the first quarter and stronger than expected oil prices are likely to cut the estimated needed borrowing for the whole year.
In the top up sale, the paper was placed at an average yield of 7.60 percent the upper end of the yield range the ministry said it would accept.
"We think that the finance ministry's willingness to provide premiums at the auctions will gradually diminish towards the second half of the year as with the current level of oil prices the government is less pressed, with the means to finance the budget gap," VTB Capital analysts wrote in a note.
High banking liquidity and a firm rouble, which despite recent weakening remains at levels not seen since late 2008, have been boosting demand for the government paper so far this year.
This has enabled the ministry to already collect 258 billion roubles of the 300 billion planned for the first quarter.
There are still three more auctions left, planned to raise a total of 45 billion roubles, to take place by the end of March.
Originally, Russia had envisaged a deficit of 3.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year and had planned to borrow up to 1.74 trillion roubles on the domestic market.
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