Bond yields increase in moderate trade

Wednesday, 15 March 2023 00:07 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Rs. 120 billion on offer at weekly bill auction
Rupee depreciates further

By Wealth Trust Securities

Activity in the secondary bond market remained moderate yesterday, while yields increased. Limited trades were witnessed on the liquid maturities of 01.07.25 and 2027’s (i.e.,01.05.27 and 15.09.27) at levels of 31.90% to 32.00% and 28.00% to 28.25% respectively against its previous day’s closing levels of 31.75/00 and 28.00/15 each.

In the secondary bill market, April, May, June and September 2023 along with March 2024 maturities were traded at levels of 23.50% to 28.50%, 28.50% to 29.25%, 28.50% to 29.00%, 27.00% and 26.00% to 26.10% respectively.

This was ahead of today’s weekly Treasury bill auction, where a total amount of Rs. 120 billion is on offer, an increase of Rs. 35 billion over its previous week. This will consist of Rs. 50 billion on the 91-day maturity and Rs. 35 billion each on the 182-day and 364-day maturities.

At last week’s auction, the weighted average rate on the 364-day maturity decreased by 121 basis points to 26.43% while the weighted average rates on the 91-day and 182-day maturity decreased by 84 and 87 basis points respectively to 28.75% and 27.77%. An amount of Rs. 106.25 billion was accepted in total against its total offered amount of Rs. 85 billion.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 13th March 2023 was Rs. 59.77 billion.

In money markets, the net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 128.06 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 0.63 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 15.50% against an amount of Rs. 128.69 billion being withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 16.50%. The weighted average rates on overnight call money and REPO stood at 16.47% and 16.50% respectively.

Forex Market

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR or rupee depreciated further yesterday as its spot contracts were traded within the range of Rs. 330.00 to Rs. 340.00 against its previous days Rs. 323.00 to 325.00. The total USD/LKR traded volume for 13 March was $ 60.95 million.

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