All time high volume on offer at weekly Treasury bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

The weekly Treasury bill auction conducted today will see an all-time high volume of Rs. 160 billion on offer, consisting of Rs. 80 billion on the 91-day maturity, Rs. 30 billion on the 182-day maturity and further Rs. 50 billion on the 364-day maturity while the week on week increase on the total offered amount is Rs. 45 billion. At last week’s auction, weighted average rates increased across the board by 09, 30 and 04 basis points respectively to 25.74%, 25.27% and 23.00%, recording its third consecutive week of increases. The total offered amount of Rs. 115.00 billion was accepted at the 1st phase of the auction while a further amount of Rs. 28.75 billion was raised at its 2nd phase.

In the secondary bond market, limited trades were seen on the 01.07.25 and two 2027’s (i.e., 01.05.27 & 15.09.27) maturities at 29.45% to 29.80% and 27.45% to 27.70% respectively. In addition, 01.05.24 maturity traded at 28.50% as well. In secondary bills, May and June 2023 maturities traded at levels of 23.75% to 23.80% and 23.95% to 24.35% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 28 April 2023 was Rs. 9.07 billion.

In money markets, The DOD (Domestic Operations Department) of Central Bank injected liquidity by way of a 7-day reverse repo auction for a volume of Rs. 13.00 billion at weighted average rate of 16.50%.

The net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 146.70 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 11.85 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 15.50% against an amount of Rs. 145.55 billion being withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 16.50%. The weighted average rates on overnight call money and REPO stood at 16.47% and 16.50% respectively.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts were traded within the range of Rs. 320.25 to Rs. 321.00 yesterday before closing the day at Rs. 320.20/320.60.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 28 April was $ 43.53 million.  

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