Activity dries up ahead of weekly bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

The new trading week commenced on a dull note as activity in the secondary bond market dried up to be at a standstill yesterday. 

In secondary market bills, 18 March 2002 maturity changed hands at a level of 7.25 %.

The weekly bill auction due today will see a total volume of Rs. 79 billion on offer, an increase of Rs. 2 billion against its previous weeks total offered volume. 

This will consist of Rs. 39 billion on the 91 day maturity, Rs. 15 billion on the 182 day and further Rs. 25 billion on the 364 day maturity. 

At last week’s auction, weighted average rates on the 91 day and 182 day maturities decreased by 07 and 01 basis points respectively to 8.52 % and 8.54 % while weighted average rate on 364 day maturity increased by 04 basis points to 8.59 %.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 11 February was Rs. 13.92 billion.   

In money markets, the Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen draining out an amount of Rs. 66.20 billion by way of an overnight repo auction at a weighted average rate of 6.49 % while an amount of Rs. 51.56 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 5.50 %. 

The overnight net liquidity deficit was registered at Rs. 537.36 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 655.11 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 6.50 %. 

The weighted average rates on overnight Call money and REPO remained steady at 6.48 % and 6.50 % respectively.

Forex Market 

The overall market remained inactive yesterday.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 11 February was $ 80.25 million.   

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