Secondary bond market remains dull ahead of weekly T-Bill auction

• Rupee appreciates 

By Wealth Trust Securities

Sentiment in the secondary bond market continued to remain dull yesterday, with only the 15.01.23, 01.10.23, 01.01.24 and 15.08.27 maturities changing hands at levels of 5.72%, 6.01%, 6.15% and 7.18% respectively. 

Today’s bill auction will have on offer Rs.40 billion consisting of Rs.10 billion of the 91 day, Rs.11 billion of the 182 day and a further Rs.19 billion of the 364 day maturities. In the meantime the stipulated cut off rates have been increased by 02 basis points each to 4.69%, 4.80% and 5.05% for the three respective maturities. The previous week’s auction remained undersubscribed for the ninth consecutive week.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volumes for 24 December was Rs.3.15 billion.    

In the money market, overnight call money and repos were at 4.54% and 4.59% respectively, with the overnight surplus liquidity at a high of Rs.224.06 billion.  

 Rupee appreciates  

 In the Forex market, active spot next contracts were seen appreciating considerably to close the day at Rs.187.50/25 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs.191.00/193.00.  

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 24 December was $ 59.63 million.   

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