A single buyer snapped up all $800 million of Australian government bonds sold on Wednesday, the largest ever amount bought by one bidder in auctions that date back to 1982.
The sale of a nominal bond to just one entity hasn't happened since August 2013, according to data from the Australian Office of Financial Management, the government funding arm.
![Throwing their weight around: A single buyer has bought all Aussie bonds on sale on Wednesday.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170706231154im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/x/o/g/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx52z3.png/1499234944367.jpg)
The 3.25 per cent notes maturing in April 2029 went off at a yield of 2.72 per cent, the office said on its website, without identifying the buyer.
The sale came after government bonds had their strongest one-day rally in six weeks on Tuesday, when the Reserve Bank dashed speculation it would join global counterparts such as the European and Canadian central banks in talking up policy tightening and flagging interest rate rises.
RBA Governor Philip Lowe also dropped a previous reference to an economic growth forecast of 3 per cent and said the recent slowing in the nation's economic output partly reflected temporary factors, like weather, but not all of it.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170706231154im_/http://www.smh.com.au/cqstatic/12z7v7/whale1.png)
"The RBA took a slightly dovish turn on Tuesday, not just relative to the comments coming from global peers, but relative to its own previous stance," said Martin Whetton, a senior rates strategist at ANZ Bank.
"A longer-dated note like this could be seen as offering good value after the recent steepening in the curve [yields on long-term bonds rising faster than yields on short-term papers in expectation of rising inflation] that had been driven by some of that global hawkishness."
The Australian Office of Financial Management declined to comment on the identity of the buyer.
Bloomberg
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