Weekly Treasury Bill averages see mixed results; auction fully subscribed

By Wealth Trust Securities

 This week’s Treasury bill auction conducted yesterday, saw weighted average rates on the 91-day bill and 364-day bill decline by 4 and 3 basis points respectively. However, the rate on the 182-day bill was seen going up by 19 basis points. As such the tenures recorded weighted averages of 18.12%, 15.38% and 13.32% respectively.

The total offered amount of Rs. 170 billion was accepted at the 1st phase of the auction. The 2nd phase of subscription, for the 182-day and 364-day bills will be opened until 4:00 p.m. on the day before the settlement date (i.e., 21.09.2023) at the weighted averages determined at the 1st phase of the auction. Given below are the details of the 1st phase of the auction:

Meanwhile, secondary bond market rates were seen significantly higher post auction. During the day trades were seen on the liquid maturities of 01.05.24, 15.09.27 and 01.07.32 at levels of 14.50% to 14.85%, 14.40% and 13.25% respectively.

In secondary market bills prior to the auction outcome, 23 December bills traded at 17.85%. Additionally, following the auction March 2024 bills traded within the range of 15.40% to 16.10% as well.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 19 September was Rs. 12.66 billion.

In money markets, the DOD (Domestic Operations Department) of Central Bank injected liquidity by way of an overnight reverse repo auction for a volume of Rs. 6.55 billion at a weighted average rate of 11.30% while an amount of Rs. 33.87 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 12.00%. The net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 32.35 billion yesterday.

The weighted average rates on overnight call money and repo were registered at 11.47% and 11.77% respectively.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts closed the day at Rs. 324.75/325.00 as against its previous day’s close of Rs. 324.00/325.00.  

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 12 September was $ 77.04 million.

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