The BOE in the City of London. The bank's figures for March showed overseas investors bought gilts for a consecutive month while domestic accounts purchased the most this year.

(April 30): A UK government bond auction was oversubscribed by a record amount, with the highest yields in months attracting buyers again and assuaging concerns that a glut of issuance would dent appetite for the securities.

The Debt Management Office received £12.8 billion (RM76.62 billion) of orders for an auction of £4 billion in five-year bonds on Tuesday (April 30), driving the bid-to-cover ratio to an all-time high of 3.21.

The yield on five-year bonds in the secondary market climbed to a five-month high last week at 4.29%, up around 90 basis points from a low reached late last year.

The sale is the latest in a string of solid bond auctions over the past month that should help ease concerns over how the government will fund its deteriorating fiscal position as interest rates remain high for longer. Last week, it raised the amount of bonds it plans to sell this fiscal year to £277.7 billion, the second most on record.

Demand, meanwhile, appears to be broad based. BOE figures for March, published earlier, showed overseas investors bought gilts for a consecutive month while domestic accounts purchased the most this year.

Still, the difference between the yield at the auction and the lowest accepted price — known as the tail — was 0.8 basis points. That’s more than a sale of four-year gilts last month and suggests the UK accepted a concession in pricing.

Money markets are betting the Bank of England will cut rates a quarter-point by September, with odds favouring just one more move by December. At the beginning of the year, the outlook was for as many as six cuts.