AGL 40.05 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.13%)
AIRLINK 127.70 Increased By ▲ 0.66 (0.52%)
BOP 6.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.05%)
CNERGY 4.52 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.22%)
DCL 8.41 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-1.64%)
DFML 41.65 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (0.51%)
DGKC 86.88 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.03%)
FCCL 32.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-0.37%)
FFBL 65.13 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (0.51%)
FFL 10.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.98%)
HUBC 110.49 Increased By ▲ 0.92 (0.84%)
HUMNL 14.78 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.68%)
KEL 5.16 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (2.18%)
KOSM 7.22 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-3.22%)
MLCF 41.70 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (0.77%)
NBP 60.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.41 (-0.68%)
OGDC 194.25 Increased By ▲ 4.15 (2.18%)
PAEL 28.35 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (1.87%)
PIBTL 7.88 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.64%)
PPL 150.85 Increased By ▲ 0.79 (0.53%)
PRL 26.69 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-0.71%)
PTC 16.11 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.25%)
SEARL 78.35 Decreased By ▼ -7.65 (-8.9%)
TELE 7.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-4.02%)
TOMCL 35.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.03%)
TPLP 7.98 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-1.72%)
TREET 16.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.41 (-2.5%)
TRG 52.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-0.73%)
UNITY 26.50 Increased By ▲ 0.34 (1.3%)
WTL 1.26 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 9,955 Increased By 71.5 (0.72%)
BR30 30,899 Increased By 298.5 (0.98%)
KSE100 93,987 Increased By 631.8 (0.68%)
KSE30 29,153 Increased By 222.3 (0.77%)

Overseas investors sold long-dated US securities in February, including government bonds, reversing several months of steady purchases, the US Treasury said on Monday. Foreigners were modest sellers of Treasuries to the tune of $122 million, with selling from official accounts, including central banks, outweighing a modest inflow from private investors. Foreigners had bought $32.3 billion in January.
"The data showed surprisingly light Treasury buying by recent standards, but recall the price action at the beginning of the year was negative for Treasuries, a trend that's since reversed, so we're expecting the March and April data to be more constructive," said Ian Lyngen, senior government bond strategist at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Connecticut.
The yield on the 10-year benchmark Treasuries rose to 2.06 percent in February as stronger US economic data and talk that the Federal Reserve could wind down asset purchases later in the year prompted investors to reach for higher-yielding assets. TD Securities interest rate strategist Gennadiy Goldberg noted the 12-month average showed about $30 billion in Treasury purchases a month, "and that included one month that saw $17 billion in selling. So investors shouldn't panic."
China, the largest foreign creditor, raised its Treasury holdings by $8.7 billion to $1.223 trillion, while Japan trimmed holdings by $6.8 billion to $1.097 trillion. Japan's central bank has since started an aggressive stimulus program that will pour some $1.4 trillion into the Japanese economy in less than two years. Analysts expect that to keep the yen weak and push down Japanese bond yields, thus prompting more Japanese purchases of US assets.
US stocks also fell out of favour after netting hefty inflows in recent months. Foreigners pulled $3.7 billion out of equities in February after buying $5.6 billion in January. But demand for corporate bonds increased. Overall, foreigners sold $17.8 billion of long-term US assets, reversing a $25.7 billion inflow seen in January. Including short-dated assets such as bills, overseas investors bought $53.6 billion in February, compared with an upwardly revised inflow of $116.8 billion the prior month.

Copyright Reuters, 2013

Comments

Comments are closed.