Bond market activity picks up ahead of weekly T-bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

The trading activity levels in the secondary bond market increased yesterday as the liquid maturities of 01.07.25, 15.05.26 and two 2027’s (i.e., 01.05.27 & 15.09.27) were seen changing hands at levels of 27.50%, 27.00% to 27.25% and 25.50% to 26.00% respectively. In the secondary bill market, continued demand for April 2024 bills saw it change hands at levels of 22.30% to 22.66%.

Today’s weekly Treasury bill auction will have in total an amount of Rs.90 billion on offer, a decrease of Rs. 30 billion from its previous weeks total offered amount. This will consist of Rs. 40 billion of the 91-day maturity and Rs. 25 billion each of the 182 day and the 364 day maturities. At last week’s auction, weighted average rates on the 91 day and 364 day maturities increased by 68 and 27 basis points respectively to 24.80% and 22.64%, recording an increase for the first time since November 2022. An amount of Rs. 99.98 billion was accepted in total at the 1st phase of the auction against its offered amount of Rs. 120 billion.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 17 April 2023 was Rs. 13.42 billion.

In money markets, the weighted average rates of overnight call money and REPO stood at 16.50% each while an amount of Rs. 199.77 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) at 16.50%.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts closed at Rs. 320.50/321.50 yesterday against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 319.50/321.00 subsequent to trading at Rs. 320.90 to Rs. 321.00. The total USD/LKR traded volume for 17 April was $ 59.84 million.  

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