Secondary Bond Market continues bullish momentum; Rupee dips

By Wealth Trust Securities

The secondary bond market continued to rally with strong demand pushing yields down even further, on the back of considerable volumes. Trading continued to be focused on the 2026 maturities (i.e., 01.06.26, 15.05.26 and 01.08.26), which saw yields drop from levels of 15.05% to 14.95% during the day. Additionally, trades were seen on the 01.05.24, 01.07.25 and 01.07.28 at levels of 15.50%, 14.93% to 14.90% and 14.60% respectively as well.

In the secondary market bills November 2023 maturities were seen trading within the range of 15.50% to 15.60% while January 2024 maturities changed hands at 15.70%.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 18th October 2023 was Rs.11.69 billion.

In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight call money and Repo stood at 10.37% and 10.71% respectively while the net liquidity deficit stood at Rs.64.02 billion yesterday.

The DOD (Domestic Operations Department) of Central Bank injected liquidity by way of an overnight auction for LKR 27.05 billion at a weighted average rate of 10.08%.

An amount of Rs.36.97 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 11.00%.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts depreciated to close the day at Rs.325.40/325.60 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs.324.50/324.65.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 13th October was US $ 89.25 million. 

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