Bond market sentiment remains gloomy ahead of weekly bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities  

The sentiment in the secondary bond market remained gloomy yesterday ahead of the weekly Treasury bill auction due today.

The auction will see a total volume of Rs. 80 billion on offer, an increase of Rs. 32 billion over its previous weeks total offered volume. The 182 day and 364 day maturities will see Rs. 20 billion each on offer while Rs. 40 billion will be on offer on the market favourite 91 day bill maturity. At last week’s auction, weighted average rates increased by 82, 27 and 28 basis points on the 91 day, 182 day and 364 day maturities respectively to 12.92%, 12.25% and 12.28%.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 4 April was Rs. 2.00 billion.   

In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight Call money and REPO was at 7.49% and 7.50% respectively as an amount of Rs. 703.89 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks Standard Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) of 7.50%. The net liquidity deficit was registered at Rs. 578.24 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 125.65 billion was deposited at Central Banks Standard Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) of 6.50%.

Forex market 

The forex market remained inactive yesterday.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 4 April was $ 24.80 million.  

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