Treasury bill rates hit 25 year highs

• Highest ever week on week increases once again
• 364 day bill rate exceeds 23%

By Wealth Trust Securities

The Treasury bill weighted averages were seen skyrocketing once again as the six month and one year maturities hit highs not seen in over 25 years at its auctions yesterday. 

The 364 day bill increased by a staggering 767 basis points (7.67%) week on week to record a weighted average of 23.36% followed by the 182 day bill by 737 basis points (7.37%) to 22.73%. The 91 day increased by 559 basis points (5.59%) to 19.71%.  

The total accepted volume increase to 93.71% of its total offered amount against its previous weeks 91.10% as the bid to offer ratio stood to 1.24:1. 

The secondary bond market continued to remain at a standstill yesterday while in secondary bills, the 08 July maturity changed hands at levels of 14.00% to 15.50%, pre-auction.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 08 April was Rs. 6.6 billion.   

In money markets, the base rate change saw the weighted average rates on overnight call money and repo increasing to 14.50% each yesterday against its previous days 7.49% and 7.50%.

The net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 601.62 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 92.65 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 13.50% against an amount of Rs. 694.27 billion withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 14.50%.

Furthermore, the Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen injecting an amount of Rs. 85.00 billion by way of a 14 day reverse Repo auction at a weighted average rate of 17.00%, valued today.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the overall market remained inactive. 

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 08 April was $ 30.50 million.  

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