Tuesday Sep 17, 2024
Tuesday Sep 17, 2024
Thursday, 19 December 2019 00:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Wealth Trust Securities
The weekly Treasury bill weighted average yields were seen spiking across the board yesterday with the market favourite 364 day bill recording a sharp increase of 22 basis points to a five week high of 8.45%. The 182 day bill weighted average jumped by 32 basis points to a 22 week high of 7.97% while the 91 day bill yield which remained steady the previous week, increased by 06 basis points to 7.51%. The total accepted amount was seen falling short of the total offered amount for the first time in five weeks as well, as only Rs. 18 billion was accepted against a total offered amount of Rs. 25 billion. 
In the secondary bond market, two-way quotes were seen widening and increasing subsequent to the auction outcome as activity continued to be dull yesterday. Selling interest on the most liquid maturity of 15.09.24 saw it yields increase to an intraday high of 9.95% against its previous day’s closing level of 9.85/90. In secondary bills, selling interest in line with the auction results saw a 357 day bill change hands from a pre-auction low of 8.28% to a post- auction high of 8.50%.
The total secondary market Treasury bond transacted volume for 17 December was Rs. 3.68 billion.
In money markets, the overnight call money and repo rates averaged at 7.51% and 7.57% respectively as the Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka injected an amount of Rs. 20.00 billion on an overnight basis by way of Reverse Repo auctions at a weighted average rate of 7.50%.
It also injected an amount Rs. 18.7 billion for 14 days at a weighted average rate of 7.56%, value today. The overnight net liquidity surplus in the system stood at Rs. 27.04 billion.
Rupee mostly unchanged
In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on the spot contracts were seen trading within the rage of Rs. 181.12 to Rs. 181.30 yesterday before closing the day mostly unchanged at a level of Rs. 181.15/25.
The total USD/LKR traded volume for 17 December was $ 69.25 million.
Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were 1 month - 181.60/80; 3 months - 182.45/75 and 6 months - 184.25/55.
