Lacklustre mode in bond markets continue

By Wealth Trust Securities

The secondary bond market continued its lacklustre mode yesterday despite the official announcement that the Government of Sri Lanka and the International Monitory Fund (IMF) have reached a Staff-Level Agreement. 

Limited trades were witnessed on the 2025 maturities (i.e., 01.06.25 and 01.07.25) at 28.00% and 28.75% respectively while buying interest on bills saw September 2022, December 2022 and June 2023 maturities changing hands at level of 18.00% to 22.50%, 32.50% to 33.50% and 31.00% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 31 August was Rs. 15.94 billion.   

In money markets, the net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 459.45 billion yesterday as amount of Rs. 778.07 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 15.50% against an amount of Rs. 318.62 billion deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 14.50%. The weighted average rates on overnight REPO stood at 15.50% while No Call money transactions were reported.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the middle rate for USD/LKR spot contracts appreciated marginally to Rs. 361.0786 yesterday against its previous day’s level of 

Rs. 361.1480.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 31 August 2022 was $ 17.91 million.  

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