91-day Treasury bill average continues to catapult

• Averages increase across maturities
• Rupee Inactive

The weighted average on the 91-day Treasury bill recorded a steep increase for a fifth consecutive week at its auction conducted yesterday while it represented 99.28% of the total offered and accepted amount of Rs. 48 billion. The week on week increase on the 91-day bill was 82 basis points to 12.92% followed by the 182 day and 364 days bills by 27 and 28 basis points respectively to 12.25% and 12.28%. Given in figure 1 are the details of the auction.

Meanwhile, activity in the secondary bond market was at a standstill yesterday.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 29 March was Rs. 3.67 billion.

In money markets, the net liquidity deficit stood at Rs.516.18 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 127.76 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 6.50% against an amount of Rs. 643.94 billion withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 7.50%. The weighted average rates on overnight Call money and REPO stood at 7.49% and 7.50% respectively.

Forex Market

The activity in the Forex market remained moderate yesterday. 

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 29 March was $ 23.22 million.

(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies)