Rs. 90 b Treasury bill auction in focus

The weekly Treasury bill auction due today will see a total volume of Rs. 90 billion on offer, an increase of Rs. 30 billion over its previous week’s total offered volume. This will consist of Rs. 44 billion on the 91-day maturity and Rs. 23 billion each on the 182-day and 364-day maturities. 

At last week’s auction, the weighted average rate on the 91-day bill increased further by 101 basis points to 29.44% while the weighted average rate on the 182-day and 364-day bills recorded a marginal decrease of 1 basis point each to 28.96% and 29.14% respectively.

 Meanwhile, the dull sentiment in the bond market continued yesterday as well. Only the 01.06.25 and 15.05.30 maturities traded at levels of 28.00% to 28.03% and 26.40% respectively. In the secondary bill market, September 2022 along with June and August 2023 maturities changed hands at level of 20.98% to 21.00% and 29.00% respectively. The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 22 August 2022 was Rs. 2.14 billion.   

In money markets, the net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 503.11 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 289.73 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 14.50% against an amount of Rs. 792.84 billion withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 15.50%. The weighted average rates on overnight REPO stood at 15.50% while No Call money transactions were witnessed.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the middle rate for USD/LKR spot contracts was at Rs. 361.0000 yesterday against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 360.9467.