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Wednesday, 10 February 2021 01:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Wealth Trust Securities
At today’s weekly Treasury bill auction, stipulated cut off rates on the 91-day and 182-day bill maturities have been removed for the first time since its introduction on 13 May 2020.
The stipulated cut off rate on the 364-day bill maturity was increased by three basis points to 5.05%, while the yield rates of the 91-day and 182-day maturities will be decided below the level of 364-day maturity at the auction.
The auction will have on offer an unchanged amount of Rs. 40 billion consisting of Rs. 7 billion of the 91-day maturity, Rs. 5 billion of the 182-day maturity and a further Rs. 28 billion of the 364-day maturity. The previous week’s auction was undersubscribed for a second consecutive week.
Activity in the secondary bond market remained rather dull yesterday with trades taking place within a narrow range. The maturities on the short end of the yield curve consisting of the 15.03.22, 2023’s (i.e. 01.09.23, 01.10.23), 01.12.24 and 01.05.25 were seen changing hands at levels of 5.30%, 5.93% to 5.95%, 6.51% to 6.54% and 6.80% to 6.85% respectively, while on the belly end of the curve, yields increased on the maturities of 15.08.27 and 15.05.30 to change hands at levels of 7.30% to 7.31% and 8% to 8.02% respectively.
In the secondary bill market, March and September 2021 maturities were seen changing hands at level of 4.63% and 4.87% respectively.
The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volumes for 8 February was Rs. 4.90 billion.
In the money market, overnight surplus liquidity was registered at Rs. 124.52 billion yesterday while weighted average rates on call money and repo remained mostly unchanged at 4.55% and 4.56% respectively.
Rupee depreciates further
In the Forex market, USD/LKR rate on spot contracts was seen depreciating further yesterday to close the day at Rs. 194.50/196.50 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 194.50/195.50, subsequent to trading at Rs. 195.
The total USD/LKR traded volume for 8 February was $ 30.20 million.
(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies)
