Rs. 90 billion Treasury bill auction in focus

• Bond yields steady
• Rupee dips marginally

By Wealth Trust Securities

The weekly Treasury bill auction conducted today will have in total an amount of Rs. 90 billion on offer which will consist of Rs. 45 billion on the 91-day maturity, Rs. 25 billion on the 182-day maturity and a further Rs. 20 billion on the 364-day maturity. The previous week’s auction (held on 04.10.23) saw weighted average yields reduced across the board to 17.22%, 15.09% and 13.16% on the three maturities respectively. The secondary market bond yields were seen closing the day broadly steady yesterday on the back of continued activity. Accordingly, trades were seen on the maturities of 01.05.24, 01.07.25, two 2026’s (i.e., 01.06.26 and 01.08.26), 15.09.27, 01.07.32 at levels of 16.00%, 15.00%, 15.15% to 15.30%, 15.00% to 15.05% and 14.00% respectively. 

In secondary market bills, October, November and December 2023 maturities traded at levels within 16.00% to 16.50% while June 2024 traded at 13.55%.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 09 October 2023 was Rs. 5.25 billion.

In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight call money and Repo stood at 10.36% and 10.92% respectively while the net liquidity stood at a surplus of Rs. 24.69 billion yesterday.

The DOD (Domestic Operations Department) of the Central Bank injected liquidity by way of an overnight repo auction for Rs. 26.98 billion at a weighted average rate of 10.07%. An amount of Rs. 48.42 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 11.00% and an amount of Rs. 50.71 billion was deposited with the Central Banks SLDR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 10.00%.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts closed the day marginally lower at Rs. 323.75/324.25 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 323.40/323.60.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 09 October was $ 48.40 million. 

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