Weekly Treasury bill auction in focus

By Wealth Trust Securities

The weekly Treasury bill auction due today will see a total volume of Rs. 75 billion on offer, an increase of Rs. 7.5 billion over its previous week’s total offered volume. This will consist of Rs. 30 billion on the 91-day, Rs. 25 billion on the 182-day and Rs. 20 billion on the 364-day maturities.

At last week’s auction, weighted average rates increased across the board for a second consecutive week to 32.89%, 31.28% and 30.50%, recording increase of 238, 177 and 67 basis points respectively. Only a total amount of Rs. 49.56 billion was successfully accepted at the auction from its phase I and II levels.

Activity in the secondary bond market moderated yesterday, with only the 01.06.25 and 15.05.31 maturities changing hands at levels of 28.05% to 28.14% and 28.75% to 29.75% respectively.

In the secondary bill market, 14 October and 26 November 2022 maturities traded at levels of 24.00% and 26.50% respectively. The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 05 September was Rs. 1.65 billion.   

In money markets, the net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 441.28 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 792.22 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 15.50% against an amount of Rs. 350.94 billion deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 14.50%. The weighted average rates on overnight call money and REPO stood at 15.50% each.

Forex Market

In the Forex market, the middle rate for USD/LKR spot contracts remained steady at Rs. 361.45 yesterday. No trades were reported on 05 September 2022.  

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