Secondary Bond market activity moderates; yields edge up marginally

Tuesday, 25 March 2025 04:58 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Rupee depreciates

By Wealth Trust Securities

The Secondary Bond market yesterday started off the week slowly with a moderation in activity and relatively lower transaction volumes as most of the market participants were seen adopting wait and see approach ahead of the upcoming Monetary Policy announcement which is due tomorrow (26 March).Yields initially remained mostly unchanged during the early part of trading. However, as the day progressed, yields were seen edging up as profit taking pressures were seen kicking in following last week’s bull run.

During the earlier trading hours, the 01.08.26 and 15.12.26 maturities were seen trading at the rates of 8.52% and 8.60% respectively. The 01.07.28 and 01.09.28 maturities saw trades at the rates of 9.78% and 9.75%-9.80%. The 15.09.29 and 15.05.30 maturities were seen trading at the rates of 10.05% and 10.10%-10.12% respectively.

However, during the latter part of the day, the yield on the 15.10.28 maturity was seen trading up from 9.80% to 9.85%. The 15.12.29 maturity saw yield increase from 10.12%-10.15%.

The total secondary market Treasury Bond/Bill transacted volume for 21 March was Rs. 15.09 billion.

In the money market, the net liquidity surplus stood at Rs. 184.06 billion yesterday. Rs. 0.14 billion was withdrawn from the Central Bank’s SLFR (Standing Lending Facility Rate) of 8.50%, while an amount of Rs. 184.47 billion was deposited at Central Bank’s SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 7.50%.

The weighted average rates on call money and repo were registered at 7.95% and 7.97% respectively.

Forex Market

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts closed the day depreciating to Rs. 296.75/296.85 as against Rs. 296.60/296.80 the previous day.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 21 March was $ 45.43 million.

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

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