Secondary bond market yields increase further

By Wealth Trust Securities 

The start of a fresh trading week saw secondary market bond yields increasing further yesterday on the back of moderate activity. The yields on the liquid maturities of 01.07.25 and 15.09.27 hit intraday highs of 29.05% and 27.00% respectively against the previous day’s closing levels of 28.75/29.00 and 26.70/00. In secondary bills, 21 July 2023 and 15 March 2024 maturities traded at levels of 25.00% to 25.25% and 23.10% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 21 April 2023 was Rs. 12.03 billion.

In money markets, the net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 191.57 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 0.15 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 15.50% against an amount of Rs. 191.72 billion being withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 16.50%. The weighted average rates on overnight call money and REPO stood at 16.50% each.

The DOD (Domestic Operations Department) of the Central Bank injected liquidity by way of a 31-day reverse repo auction for a volume of Rs. 40.00 billion at a weighted average rate of 21.62%, valued today.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts closed at Rs. 321.50/321.90 yesterday against its Friday closing level of Rs. 321.50/321.75 subsequent to trading at Rs. 321.80.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 21 April was $ 71.92 million.  

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