The Thomson Reuters BPAM All Bond Index posted a gain of 0.17 per cent to end the week at 139.20.
This was mainly attributed to the strong demand seen in both the MGS and GII segment, especially in the three to seven-year region of the curve.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices rebounded and the Malaysian ringgit has also strengthened to 3.6040 from 3.6205 against US dollar in the previous week.
Data released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia showed that Malaysia’s Leading Index and Coincident Index for December 2014 registered 1.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent month-on-month growth respectively, whereas the unemployment rate for the same month increased to three per cent as compared to 2.7 per cent in the previous month.
On February 24, 2015, Bank Negara Malaysia reported that Malaysia’s international reserves moderated slightly to RM385.9 billion (US$110.5 billion) on February 13, 2015 from RM386.5 billion (US$110.6 billion) on January 30, 2015.
The reserves position is sufficient to finance 7.8 months of retained imports and is 1.1 times the short-term external debt.
Top 10 most active bonds:
Trading volume of the top 10 most active bonds in the ringgit bond market was dominated by sovereign bonds. Total trading volume of the top 10 most active bonds regained to RM15 billion from previous week’s RM5.2 billion due to the strong demand in the sovereign segment bolstered by the issuance of the new 5.5-year benchmark GII.
Sovereign bond auction:
On Tuesday, BNM announced the tender details of the new RM4 billion 5.5-year benchmark GII maturing on August 27, 2020.
The auction closed on February 26, 2015 with a strong bid-to-cover ratio of 3.015 times. The highest, average and lowest yields are 3.805, 3.799 and 3.787 per cent respectively.
New bond(s):
On February 27, 2015, DRB-Hicom Bhd issued a perpetual-non-callable-five-year sukuk amounting to RM100 million.
The sukuk carries a profit rate of 7.5 per cent and the issuance is rated AIS with a stable outlook by MARC.