Sales of public securities to individuals over the internet totaled R$ 2.801 billion in October, announced today (24) the National Treasury. The volume represents a drop of 20.1% compared to that recorded in the same month last year (R$ 3.506 billion), but it is the second best level in history for the month of October.
The securities most sought after by investors were those corrected by the Selic (basic interest rates for the economy), whose share in sales reached 69.3%. Inflation-linked securities (Extended National Consumer Price Index – IPCA) accounted for 19.1% of the total, while fixed-rate securities, with interest defined at the time of issuance, accounted for 11.6%.
From March 2021 until August of this year, the Central Bank (BC) raised the Selic rate. The rate, which was at 2% per year, at the lowest level in history, jumped to 13.75% per year since then. High interest rates continue to attract interest in securities linked to basic interest rates.
For the first time, the total Treasury Direct stock exceeded the R$ 100 billion mark. At the end of October, the volume of securities associated with the program totaled R$ 101.23 billion, an increase of 1.34% in relation to the previous month (R$ 99.89 billion) and 35.84% in relation to October last year (R$ 74.52 billion). This increase occurred because sales surpassed redemptions by R$774.1 million last month.
Investors
Regarding the number of investors, 439,537 new participants registered in the program last month. The total number of investors reached 21,600,786. In the last 12 months, the number of investors accumulates an increase of 52.48%. The total number of active investors (with outstanding operations) reached 2,102,313, an increase of 23.14% in 12 months.
The use of the Direct Treasury by small investors can be observed by the considerable number of sales of up to R$ 5 thousand, which corresponded to 83.8% of the total of 489,507 sales operations that took place in October. Investments of up to R$ 1,000 alone accounted for 62.9%. The average value per operation was R$ 5,722.17.
Investors are preferring short-term stocks. Sales of bonds with terms between 1 and 5 years represented 82.1% and those with terms between 5 and 10 years, just 5.6% of the total. Bonds with maturities of more than ten years accounted for 12.3% of sales.
The complete balance sheet of the Direct Treasury is available at page of the Transparent Treasury.
Fund-raising
The Direct Treasury was created in January 2002 to popularize this type of application and allow individuals to acquire public securities directly from the National Treasury, via the Internet, without the intermediation of financial agents.
Investors only need to pay a semi-annual fee to B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, which has custody of the bonds. More information can be obtained from the site from Treasury Direct.
The sale of securities is one of the ways the government has to raise funds to pay debts and honor commitments. In exchange, the National Treasury undertakes to return the amount with an additional fee that may vary according to the Selic rate, inflation rates, exchange rates or a rate defined in advance in the case of pre-fixed securities.
