Secondary bond market activity moderate ahead of weekly bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

Activity in the secondary bond market remained rather dull yesterday with limited trades of the 15.11.22, 15.05.23, 01.09.23, 01.02.26 and 15.10.27 maturities taking place at levels of 5.53%, 5.70%, 5.75%, 6.56% to 6.59% and 6.88% to 6.95% respectively. 

Yet again, today’s weekly bill auction will have on offer a total amount of Rs. 40 billion, consisting of Rs. 8 billion of the 91 day, Rs. 14 billion of the 182 day and Rs. 18 billion of the 364 day maturities. 

At last week’s auction, the weighted average rates of the 182 day and 364 day maturities decreased by 02 and 01 basis points respectively to 4.65% and 4.88% while the weighted average rate of the 91 day maturity remained steady at 4.52%. The same weighted average rates were announced as the stipulated cut offs for today’s auction. 

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volumes for 14 September was Rs. 3.20 billion.   

In the money market, Overnight net surplus liquidity stood at Rs.180.08 billion, while the weighted average rates of overnight call money and Repos recording 4.52% and 4.57% respectively.  

LKR trades within a steady range

In the Forex market, USD/LKR rate on spot contracts was seen trading within a range of Rs. 184.30 to Rs. 184.50 before closing the day at Rs. 184.40/55 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 184.20/40. 

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 14 September was $ 99.75 million.   

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