The latest 3-month T-bills auction on July 28 was noteworthy in that the Ministry of Finance demonstrated its toughness and managed to decrease the average yield for the first time in the last two months. According to a Ministry of Finance official, Baurzhan Toibazarov, the eight point decrease in the yield may be related to changes in the Russian securities market, since Russia stopped placing short-term papers. This may bring some investors back to Kazakhstan. Non-residents made up only 9.5% of the total demand volume (they were 21.1% last time) and 20.3% of the placed volume (23.4% last time).

Non-residents made up for their lack of interest in 3-month T-bills by boosting their activity level at the latest auction of 6-month T-bills. They accounted for 19% of the demand volume (compared with 11.4% a week earlier) and for 24.8% of the total placed volume (0% the previous week). Here, the issuer didn't change tactics and placed more than the targeted volume. This caused the yield growth to slow.

Note: The parameters of the 75^th auction (shown in the table and graph below) have changed according to amendments made by the Ministry of Finance after it had finalised the parameters of the previous placement.