Bond market at a standstill ahead of weekly bill auction

Wednesday, 23 August 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

Activity in the secondary bond market came to a complete standstill yesterday barring short tenure maturities ahead of the weekly Treasury bill auction due today.

At today’s auction a total amount of Rs. 20 billion will be on offer consisting of Rs. 2 billion on the 91-day maturity, Rs. 8 billion on the 182-day maturity and a further Rs. 10 billion on the 364-day maturity. At last week’s auction, the weighted averages on the 182-day and 364-day bills increased by 15 and 16 basis points respectively to 9.17% and 9.54%, while the 91-day bill was not on offer.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 21 August 2017 was Rs. 8.54 billion.

In money markets, the Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka drained out an amount of Rs. 15.65 billion on an overnight basis at a weighted average of 7.27% as the net surplus liquidity in the system stood at Rs. 24.25 billion. The overnight call money and repo rates averaged at 8.50% and 8.40% respectively.

Rupee appreciates further

The USD/LKR rate on spot contracts was seen appreciating further yesterday to close the day at Rs. 153.00/05 against its previous day’s closing of Rs. 153.10/15 on the back of exporter conversions.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 21 August 2017 was $ 81.56 million.

Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month - 153.90/00; three months - 155.80/90 and six months - 158.55/65.

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