Secondary market bond yields steady ahead of weekly bill auction

Wednesday, 16 May 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

The secondary market bond yields were seen closing the day steady yesterday on moderate activity ahead of today’s weekly Treasury bill auction.

Limited trades were seen on the 01.03.21, 15.03.23, 01.08.24 and 01.09.28 maturities within the range of 10.04% to 10.18%, 10.38% to 10.39%, 10.50% to 10.51% and 10.67% to 10.70% respectively.

Today’s bill auction will have on offer a total amount of Rs. 28 billion consisting of Rs. 7 billion each on the 91 day and the 182 day maturities and further Rs. 14 billion of the 364 day maturity. At last week’s auction, weighted averages increased to 8.11% and 9.65% on the 91 day and 364 day maturities respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 14 May was Rs. 5.25 billion. In money markets, the overnight call money and repo rates increased marginally to average 7.89% and 7.95% respectively as net surplus liquidity in the system dipped to Rs. 3.01 billion yesterday. The Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka drained out an amount of Rs. 4 billion on an overnight basis by way of a Repo auction at a weighted average of 7.50%.

Rupee dips further

The USD/LKR rate on spot contracts were seen depreciating further yesterday to close the day at Rs. 158.20/40 against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 157.95/20 on the back of importer demand and exporters staying on the sidelines.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 14 May was $ 47.45 million. Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month - 158.95/25; three months - 160.40/60 and six months - 162.60/80