Bond and bill market activity remains moderate

• Yields dip marginal; Rupee dips marginally

By Wealth Trust Securities

The secondary bond and bill market commenced the week with some buying interest, particularly on Treasury Bills while overall activity remained moderate. Limited trades were seen on the bond maturities of the 01.08.26 and 01.07.28 at levels of 15.65% to 15.78% and 14.75% to 14.90% respectively.

In secondary bills, October, November and December 2023 maturities traded at 16.50%, 17.60% to 18.25% and 17.50% to 18.25% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 1 September 2023 was Rs. 30.90 billion.

In money markets, the DOD (Domestic Operations Department) of Central Bank injected liquidity by way of overnight and 30-day reverse repo auctions for volumes of Rs. 80 billion and Rs. 30 billion at weighted average rates of 11.46% and 13.95% respectively while an amount of Rs. 67.77 billion was withdrawn from Central Bank’s SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 12.00%. The net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 109.37 billion yesterday.

The weighted average rates on overnight call money and repo were registered at 11.52% and 11.79% respectively.

 

Forex market 

In the forex market, the Rupee or USD/LKR rate on spot contracts depreciated marginally to close trading yesterday at Rs. 320.50/321.50 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 319.50/320.00.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 1 September was $ 14.95 million.

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