Dull sentiment continues ahead of weekly bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

Activity in the secondary bond market remained rather dull yesterday ahead of today’s weekly Treasury bills auction. 

A limited amount of trades were witnessed on the maturities of 01.08.25, 01.08.26 and 15.06.27 within the range of 10.30% to 10.40%.

Today’s bill auction will have on offer a total amount of Rs. 20 billion consisting of Rs. 4 billion on the 91 day, Rs. 7 billion on the 182 day and Rs. 9 billion on the 364 day maturities. At last week’s auction, weighted averages increased for a third consecutive week across the board by seven, two and nine basis points respectively to 8.78%, 9.10% and 9.41%.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volumes for 11 October was Rs. 2.70 billion.

In money markets, the overnight call money and repo rates averaged 8.15% and 7.90% respectively as the net surplus liquidity in the system stood at Rs. 16.39 billion yesterday. The OMO Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka drained out an amount of Rs. 7.50 billion on an overnight basis by way of a repo auction at a weighted average of 7.25%.

Rupee closes stronger

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR spot rate was seen closing stronger at Rs. 153.50/55 yesterday against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 153.60/70 subsequent to hitting intraday low of Rs. 153.725 on the back of inwards remittances outweighing importer demand.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 13 October was $ 64.50 million.

Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month - 154.35/55, three months - 156.10/25 and six months - 158.40/65.