The Government raised more than 24.5 trillion VND (1.15 billion USD) from bonds on the primary market in February, a drop of 12.2 percent from January, the Hanoi Stock Exchange reported.

In the 16 auctions held on the northern bourse last month, the State Treasury offloaded bonds worth almost 23 trillion VND (1.07 billion USD) and the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies sold bonds worth 1.6 trillion VND (75 million USD).

According to the exchange, five-year bonds garnered the most attention in terms of bids and calls, accounting for 62.5 percent of the bonds sold last month.

Coupon rates declined in all types of bonds. Three-year bonds were sold at coupon rates between 5.1-5.24 percent annually, down 0.33 percent from January.

The interest rates paid on five-year bonds also decreased by 0.67 percent from the previous month, selling between 5.29-5.95 percent annually. The coupon rates of 10-year bonds were 6.48-6.5 percent annually, down 0.02 percent, and 15-year bonds were 7.5-7.59 percent annually, down 0.41 percent.

In the secondary market, the total volume of outright trading in February amounted to 318.5 million bonds, worth 34.1 trillion VND (1.6 billion USD), of which sales of Government-backed bonds accounted for 2.3 trillion VND (107.5 million USD).

The trading volume by repurchase agreements (repos) was 92.3 million bonds, equivalent to the value of 9.3 trillion VND (434.6 million USD). Repos of Government-backed bonds constituted 2.2 trillion VND (102.8 million USD) of the total.

Foreign investors focused their activity to outright trading with their buy value amounting to 7.71 trillion VND (360.3 million USD) while the repos sales were just 340 billion VND (15.9 million USD).

According to the Hanoi exchange, total sales of Government bonds for 2015 have so far reached 44.323 trillion VND (2.07 billion USD), of which the State Treasury of Vietnam raised 40.37 trillion VND (1.9 billion USD) and the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies sold bonds worth 3.953 trillion VND (185.5 million USD).

VNA