Rupee dips marginally once again

• Treasury bond yields increase ahead of Treasury bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities 

The secondary market bond yields were seen increasing marginally yesterday as the liquid 15.09.27 maturity hit an intraday high of 28.50% against its previous day’s closing levels of 28.20/60. In addition, 01.07.32 maturity traded at a level of 23.55%. In secondary bills, March 2024 maturities traded within the range of 24.50% to 27.00%.

Today’s weekly Treasury bill auction will have in total an amount of Rs. 120 billion on offer, a decrease of Rs. 5 billion from its previous weeks total offered amount. This will consist of Rs. 60 billion of the 91 day maturity and Rs. 30 billion each of the 182 day and the 364 day maturities. At last week’s auction, weighted average rates decreased across the board by 171, 122 and 160 basis points respectively to 26.23%, 26.12% and 24.32%, recording its fourth consecutive week of declines. The total offered amount of Rs.125.00 billion was accepted at the 1st phase of the auction while a further amount of Rs. 31.25 billion was raised at its phase II.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 27 March 2023 was Rs. 4.17 billion.    

In money markets, the weighted average rates of overnight call money and REPO stood at 16.49% and 16.50% respectively while an amount of Rs. 196.81 billion was withdrawn from the Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) at 16.50%.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR spot contracts depreciated marginally to Rs. 322.00/327.00 yesterday against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 320.00/325.00. The total USD/LKR traded volume for 27 March was $ 51.10 million.  

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