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Thursday, 4 March 2021 00:53 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Wealth Trust Securities
The total offered volume at a weekly Treasury bill auction was fully subscribed for the first time in six weeks at its auction held yesterday. The total offered amount of Rs. 45 billion was fully taken up by way of subscription on the 91-day and 182-day maturities mainly, as its weighted averages were seen increasing by five and four basis points respectively to 4.95% and 5.03%. The weighted average rate on the 364-day maturity increased by one basis point to 5.10%, equaling its cut-off. The bids-to-offer ratio increased to a seven-week high of 2.53:1.
In the secondary bond market, yields declined further yesterday with the liquid maturities of 2022’s (i.e. 01.10.22 and 15.12.22), 15.11.23 and 15.09.24 hitting intraday lows of 5.68%, 5.70%, 6.20% and 6.62% respectively, against its previous day’s closing levels of 5.70/75, 5.73/78, 6.22/28 and 6.68/75. In addition, maturities of 15.05.23, 15.07.23 and 15.08.27 changed hands at levels of 6.04% to 6.08%, 6.14% and 7.48% to 7.495% respectively. In secondary bills, 28 January 2020 maturity traded at a level of 5.13%, pre-auction.
This was ahead of today’s monetary policy announcement due at 7:30 a.m. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka kept policy rates unchanged at its previous announcement on the 19 January.
The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 2 March was Rs. 4.07 billion.
In the money market, the overnight surplus liquidity stood at Rs. 175.63 billion yesterday, while the weighted average rates on call money and repo was registered at 4.54% and 4.56% respectively.
Rupee remains mostly unchanged
In the Forex market, USD/LKR rate on more active one-week forward contracts were seen closing the day mostly unchanged at Rs. 196.50/197.00 yesterday.
The total USD/LKR traded volume for 2 March was $ 47.46 million.
(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies)
