Sales of public securities to individuals via the internet broke a record in January, the National Treasury announced this Wednesday (25). Last month, Tesouro Direto sold R$12.02 billion in securities, the largest volume for a month since the program was created in 2002.
The value is 26.9% higher than in December, when Tesouro Direto sales totaled R$9.47 billion. Compared to January last year, it is 37.21% higher.
THE previous record sales was recorded in March last year, when R$11.69 billion were sold.
The securities most sought after by investors in January were those linked to basic interest rates, whose share of sales totaled 48.9%. Inflation-adjusted securities (Extended National Consumer Price Index – IPCA) corresponded to 28.2% of the total, while pre-fixed securities, with interest rates defined at the time of issuance, totaled 15.1%.
Intended for financing retirements, Tesouro Renda+, launched in early 2023, accounted for 6.4% of sales. Created in August 2023, the new Treasury Educa+ title, which aims to finance savings for higher education, attracted just 1.5% of sales.
The interest in securities linked to basic interest rates is justified by the high level of the Selic Rate. The rate, which was 10.5% per year until September 2024, was increased to 15% per year. With high interest rates, securities remain attractive. Inflation-linked bonds have also attracted investors because of the expectation of a rise in official inflation in the coming months.
The total Treasury Direct stock reached R$220.24 billion at the end of January, an increase of 3.28% compared to the previous month (R$213.24 billion) and 37.75% compared to January last year (R$159.88 billion). This increase occurred because of the interest rate correction and because sales exceeded redemptions by R$4.88 billion in the last month.
Investors
Regarding the number of investors, 330,786 participants became part of the program last month. The total number of investors reached 34,587,727. In the last 12 months, the number has increased by 9.83%. The total number of active investors (with open operations) reached 3,454,385, an increase of 14.73% in 12 months.
The use of Tesouro Direto by small investors can be seen in the considerable number of sales of up to R$5,000, which corresponded to 77.5% of the total of 1,305,976 sales transactions that took place in January. Investments of up to R$1,000 alone represented 55.7%. The average value per operation reached R$9,207.33.
Investors are preferring medium-term securities. Sales of five- to ten-year bonds represent 40.6% of the total. Operations with a term of up to five years correspond to 39.9% of the total. Papers with a maturity of more than ten years represented 19.5% of sales.
The complete balance sheet of Tesouro Direto is available at Transparent Treasury page.
Fundraising
Tesouro Direto was created in January 2002 to popularize this type of application and allow individuals to purchase public securities directly from the National Treasury, via the internet, without the intermediation of financial agents. The investor only needs to pay a fee to B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, discounted on securities movements. More information can be obtained at website Treasury Direct.
The sale of bonds is one of the ways that the government has to raise resources 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 rate or a rate defined in advance in the case of fixed-rate securities.
