Dull activity continues in bond market ahead of weekly auction; rupee steady

By Wealth Trust Securities

The dull activity levels continued in the secondary bond market yesterday as only the maturities of 01.07.25 and 01.07.32 changed hands at levels of 27.05% and 20.25% respectively.

This was ahead of today’s Treasury bill auction of Rs. 110 billion in total, consisting of Rs. 50 billion of the 91-day maturity and Rs. 30 billion each of the 182-day and the 364-day maturities.

At last week’s auction, the weighted average yields of the preferred 182-day and 364-day maturities decreased by 129 and 102 basis points respectively to 20.61% and 18.08% while the 91-day maturity decreased by 05 basis points to 23.16%. The total offered amount of Rs. 180 billion was fully subscribed. Furthermore, an additional Rs. 45.00 billion was taken through the 2nd phase of the auction as well.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 19 June 2023 was Rs. 33.71 billion. In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight call money and repo were registered at 13.69% and 14.00% respectively as the DOD (Domestic Operations Department) of Central Bank injected liquidity by way of overnight and 7-day reverse repo auctions for a total volume of Rs. 78.00 billion at weighted average rates of 13.53% and 14.00% respectively. Further an amount of Rs. 112.13 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 14.00%.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts was seen closing the day broadly steady at Rs. 306.50/307.50 subsequent to trading within the range of Rs. 306.00 to Rs. 307.00 yesterday.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 19 June was $ 32.75 million.  

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