Rs. 88.5 b on offer at weekly bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

The weekly bill auction due today will see a total volume of Rs. 88.5 billion on offer, consisting of Rs. 38 billion on the 91 day maturity, Rs. 20.5 billion on the 182 day maturity and Rs. 30 billion on the 364 day maturity, reflecting an increase of Rs. 8 billion when compared with its previous week. 

At last week’s auction, the weighted average rates were seen increasing across the board by 14, 11 and 07 basis points to 8.63% and 8.55% each respectively while the total offered amount was fully subscribed for a fourth consecutive week.

Activity in the secondary bond market remained dull yesterday with only the maturities of 15.03.25 and 15.01.33 changing hands at levels of 11.30% and 13.01% to 13.02% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 31 January was Rs. 19.95 billion.   

In money markets, the net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 473.67 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 599.43 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks Standard Deposit Facility Rate (SLFR) of 6.50% while an amount of Rs. 62.08 billion was deposited at Central Banks Standard Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) of 5.50%. 

Furthermore, the Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka drained out an amount of Rs. 63.68 billion by way of an overnight auction at a weighted average rate of 6.49%. The weighted average rates on overnight Call money and REPO remained steady at 6.48% and 6.50% respectively.

Forex market 

The USD/LKR rate on spot contracts traded at a level of Rs. 203.00 while the overall market remained inactive yesterday.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 31 January was $ 36.25 million.   

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