Secondary bond market at standstill

Tuesday, 25 June 2024 00:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

The secondary bond market kicked off the trading week on a dull note, carrying over the bearish to negative sentiment from the previous week. Sparse trades were observed on thin overall transaction volumes, with the market at a standstill for much of the day and yields edging up further.

The limited trades that were observed was on selected maturities. Accordingly, the 2026 tenor of 01.06.26 and 01.08.26 maturities were seen trading at the rate of 10.70%. Additionally, the 01.12.31 maturity traded at 12.10%.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 20 June was Rs. 13.35 billion.

In money markets, the weighted average rate on overnight call money was at 8.82% and repo was at 9.03%.

The net liquidity surplus stood at Rs. 84.70 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 14.01 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 9.50% against an amount of Rs. 158.71 billion been deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 8.50%.

Further, the DOD (Domestic Operations Department) of Central Bank injected liquidity by way of an overnight reverse repo auction for Rs. 60.00 billion at the weighted average rate of 8.74%.

Forex Market

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts closed the day edging up further, at

Rs. 305.20/305.30 against its previous day’s closing level of

Rs. 305.10/305.30.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 20 June was

$ 71.60 million.

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