364-day bill weighted average nudges up by 5 basis points

Wednesday, 19 February 2020 02:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Bond market ignites

By Wealth Trust Securities

The weighted average yield of the 364-day bill was seen nudging up by five basis points to 8.60% at its weekly auction conducted yesterday while weighted average yields on the 91-day and 182-day bills increased by eight and two basis points respectively to 7.44% and 8.06%.

The total offered amount of Rs. 25 billion was fully met as an amount of Rs. 14.25 billion was accepted on the 364-day maturity alone against its offered amount of Rs. 12 billion. The bids to offer ratio on the 364-day bill stood at 3.11:1 while the overall bids to offer ratio was recorded at 2.57:1. Given below are the details of the auction.

Meanwhile, the secondary bond market became active yesterday as yields were seen decreasing across the board, reversing an increasing trend witnessed during February to date. Buying interest consisting of the liquid maturities of 01.09.23 and 2024s (i.e. 15.06.24 & 15.09.24) saw its yields to dip to intraday lows of 9.35%, 9.58% and 9.56% respectively against its opening highs of 9.50% and 9.70% each.

In addition, the maturities of 15.12.21, 15.03.22, 15.05.23, 15.07.23, 01.08.24 and 01.09.28 changed hands at levels of 9.00% to 9.10%, 9.35%, 9.40% to 9.50%, 9.30% to 9.35%, 9.60% to 9.65% and 10.00% to 10.09% respectively as well. In the secondary bill market, January and February 2020 maturities traded within the range of 8.59% to 8.65%, pre-auction.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 17 February 2020 was Rs. 4.4 billion.

Given below are the closing, secondary market yields of the most frequently traded T-bills and bonds.

Meanwhile, in money markets, the Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka refrained from conducting any auctions yesterday as the overnight net liquidity surplus in the system increased to Rs. 23.70 billion. The overnight call money and Repo averaged 6.97% and 7.06% respectively.

Rupee loses further

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts were seen losing further yesterday to close the day at Rs. 181.62/70 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 181.50/60 subsequent to trading within the range of Rs. 181.58 to Rs. 181.69.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 17 February 2020 was $ 69.21 million.

The following are some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market: one month - 182.10/25; three months - 183.15/35 and six months - 184.70/00.

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