T-bill auction fully subscribed ahead of today’s T-bond auction

Thursday, 29 December 2022 00:40 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

The weekly Treasury bill auction conducted yesterday was successfully subscribed with the total offered amount of Rs. 98 billion being taken up. Demand once again centred around the 91-day maturity where Rs. 83.99 billion was accepted against an offered amount of Rs. 50 billion.

The weighted average yields decreased across the board by three basis points each on the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day maturities to 32.64%, 32.20% and 29.27% respectively, while Phase two of the auction will be opened for the 182-day and 364-day maturities at the weighted average yields.

Today’s bond auction will have on offer a total volume of Rs. 90 billion, consisting of Rs. 30 billion of the 15.01.2025 and Rs. 60 billion of the 15.05.2026 maturity, both carrying coupon rates of 22.50% each. At the last bond auction conducted on 13 December 2022, the 15.05.26 was issued at a weighted average rate of 31.45% and the 15.01.25 at 33.01%.

Activity in the secondary bond market remained dull yesterday with maturities of 01.05.24 and 15.01.25 changing hands at levels of 33.00% and 33.25% to 33.30% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 27 December 2022 was Rs. 6.7 billion.

In money markets, the net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 220.57 billion yesterday with an amount of Rs. 345.60 billion being deposited with the Central Banks SDFR facility (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) at 14.50% and Rs. 566.17 billion being withdrawn from the Central Banks SLFR facility (Standard Lending Facility Rate) at 15.50%. The weighted average rates on overnight Call money and REPOs stood at 15.50% each.

Forex Market

In the Forex market, the middle rate for USD/LKR spot contracts depreciated marginally yesterday to Rs. 363.1326 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 363.1000.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 27 December was $ 114 million.

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