Rupee continues to appreciate

• Bond market at a standstill

By Wealth Trust Securities

The USD/LKR rate on spot contracts continued its appreciating trend at the start of a new week yesterday. The spot rate closed the day at Rs. 311.70/312.20 against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 312.90/313.30 on the back of continued selling interest of the dollar.

Meanwhile, activity in the secondary bond market was at a standstill yesterday as most market participants continued to be on the sidelines.

In money markets, the net liquidity stood at a deficit of Rs. 42.38 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 55.80 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 15.50% against an amount of Rs. 98.17 billion being withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 16.50%. The weighted average rates on overnight call money and REPO stood at 16.47% and 16.50% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 12 May 2023 was Rs. 27.55 billion.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 12 May was $ 52.95 million.

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