Bond activity remains moderate ahead of weekly T-bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

The activity in the secondary bond market remained moderate yesterday, with most market participants continuing to be on the sidelines. The yield on the 15.11.23 maturity decreased marginally to an intraday low of 6.36% against its previous day’s closing level of 6.43/48 while the 15.12.22 maturity was traded within the range of 5.72% to 5.80% as well.

At today’s bill auction, Rs. 47.5 billion will be on offer, consisting of Rs. 15 billion on the 91-day maturity, Rs. 16.0 billion on the 182-day maturity and Rs. 16.5 billion on the 364-day maturity. The stipulated cut off rate on the 364-day maturity remained steady at 5.26% while the maximum yield rates of the 91-day and 182-day maturities will be decided below the level of the 364-day maturity at the auction. At last week’s auction, the weighted average rates on the 91-day and 364-day maturities increased by 01 basis point each to 5.22% and 5.25% while no successful bids were recorded on the 182-day maturity. Furthermore, the total accepted volume decreased to a four-week low of 72.10% of its total offered amount.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 26 July 2021 was Rs. 0.25 billion.  

In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight call money and repo averaged 5.11% and 5.14% respectively as the overnight net liquidity surplus edged up to Rs. 21.85 billion yesterday. An amount of Rs. 118.30 billion was deposited at Central Banks SLDR of 4.50% against an amount of Rs. 96.45 billion withdrawn from Central Bank’s SLFR of 5.50%. The CBSL’s holding of Government Securities remained unchanged at Rs. 1,135.57 billion.

USD/LKR  

In Forex markets, the overall market continued to remain inactive yesterday.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 26 July was $ 26.20 million.  

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