Weekly Treasury bill averages broadly steady

• Secondary bond market activity slows down
• Rupee continues to dip

By Wealth Trust Securities

This week’s Treasury bill auction conducted yesterday, saw the weighted average rate on the 91-day bill dip marginally by 2 basis points while the weighted averages on the 182-day and 364-day maturities remained unchanged. As such the tenures recorded weighted averages of 18.46%, 15.36% and 13.58% respectively.

The total offered amount of Rs. 140 billion was accepted at the 1st phase of the auction. The 2nd phase of subscription for the 182-day and 364-day maturities is open until 4:00 p.m. on the business day before the settlement date (i.e., 07.09.2023) at the weighted averages determined at the 1st phase of the auction. Given below are the details of the 1st phase of the auction:

The secondary bond market activity moderated considerably yesterday. Trades were seen on the liquid maturities of the 01.07.25, two 26’s (i.e.15.05.26 and 01.08.26), 01.05.27 and 01.07.28 at levels of 15.75%, 15.55% to 15.75%, 14.79% and 14.65% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 5 September 2023 was Rs. 20.47 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auction for a volume of Rs. 44.20 billion at a weighted average rate of 11.49% while an amount of Rs. 55.72 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending Facility Rate) of 12.00%. The net liquidity deficit stood at Rs. 63.92 billion yesterday.

The weighted average rates on overnight call money and repo were registered at 11.54% and 11.94% respectively.

Forex Market 

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts traded within the range of Rs. 322.20 to Rs. 322.50 yesterday, before closing the day marginally lower at Rs.322.50/322.75 as against its previous day’s close of Rs 321.75/322.25.  

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 5 September was $ 74.06 million. 

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