All-time high volume fully subscribed

Thursday, 20 January 2022 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Monetary policy announcement in focus
SLFR accessed over Rs. 550 b

By Wealth Trust Securities

An all-time high offered volume of Rs. 97 billion at a weekly Treasury bill auction was fully subscribed yesterday as demand only for the 91-day bill maturity all but met the total accepted volume. The weekly auction was fully subscribed for a third consecutive week.

A volume of Rs. 96.62 billion or 99.61% was accepted on the 91-day bill alone, out of a total offered amount of Rs. 97 billion while the total bids-received-to-total-offered ratio stood at 2.16:1.

The weighted average rates increased across the board by 11 and four basis points each on the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day maturities respectively to 8.49%, 8.44% and 8.48%.

This was ahead of today’s monetary policy announcement, the first for the year 2022, due at 7:30 a.m. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka kept policy rates unchanged at its previous announcement on 25 November 2021.

Activity in secondary bond remained dull yesterday with only the 15.05.23 maturity changing hands at a level of 9.50%. The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 18 January was Rs. 11.24 billion.

In money markets, the weighted average rates on call money and repo remained mostly unchanged at 5.95% and 6% respectively as an amount of Rs. 559.81 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 6%.

The net liquidity deficit increased to Rs. 414.54 billion yesterday with an amount of Rs. 78.57 billion been deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 5%. Furthermore, the Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen draining out an amount of Rs. 66.70 billion by way of overnight repo auction at a weighted average rate of 5.98%. CBSL’s holding of Gov. Securities registered at Rs. 1,531.79 billion.

USD/LKR

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts traded at a level of Rs. 203, while the overall market remained inactive yesterday. The total USD/LKR traded volume for 18 January was $ 61 million.

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