UK sells GBP 4.25bln 4.875% 2036 Gilt: b/c 3.34x (prev. 3.65x), average yield 5.383% (prev. 5.155%), tail 0.5bps (prev. 0.1bps)

A conventional reopening with a softer set of metrics than the prior outing of the same line: coverage slipped, the average yield backed up, and the tail widened from a fraction of a basis point to half a point. On UK syndication and auction practice, tails of this size are unremarkable and well inside the range the DMO absorbs without comment; it is sustained tails beyond a basis point or repeated weak coverage that have historically signalled genuine indigestion, particularly when the fiscal remit is being revised upward. The distinction worth drawing is between auction-specific softness, where the concession was simply too small on the day, and a pattern across successive tenors pointing to duration fatigue, since gilts of this maturity sit in the part of the curve most exposed to supply given lighter natural demand from the traditional domestic buyer base than at the very long end. The follow-ons that have mattered in comparable episodes are the post-auction cheapening of the issue versus the curve, secondary performance of the tapped line over subsequent sessions, and whether the next scheduled sales in adjacent maturities show the same drift in coverage. As a single data point, this reads as a modestly soft but orderly sale rather than a demand signal.