Weekly bill auction attracts Rs. 34.74 b

• Activity remains moderate ahead of T-Bond auctions

By Wealth Trust Securities

The weekly Treasury bill auction went undersubscribed yesterday as its total accepted amount was seen falling short of its total offered amount once again. 

An amount of Rs. 34.74 billion was accepted in total from all three maturities against its total offered amount of Rs. 45 billion. The weighted average rates on the 91-day and 182-day maturities increased by four and three basis points respectively to 4.99% and 5.06%, while the 364-day bill was recorded at 5.10%. The bids-to-offer ratio stood at 1.55:1. 

Activity in the secondary bond market remained rather moderate yesterday with only the maturities of 01.10.22 and 15.12.22 changing hands at levels of 5.75% and 5.85% respectively. In the secondary bill market, April 2021 and May 2021 maturities traded at levels of 4.68% and 4.95% respectively.

Today’s bond auction will have on offer a total amount of Rs. 60 billion, consisting of Rs. 20 billion of 01.09.2023, Rs. 15 billion of 01.02.2026 and Rs. 25 billion of 15.08.2027. The maximum yields rate for acceptance for the said maturities was published at 6.20%, 7.10% and 7.45% respectively. The weighted average yields at the bond auctions conducted on 24 February were 6.25%, 6.70%, 7.07% and 7.57% for the maturities of 15.11.2023, 15.09.2024, 15.01.2026 and 01.07.2028 respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 8 March was Rs. 7.1 billion.   

In the money market, weighted average rates on call money and repo was registered at 4.54% and 4.55% respectively yesterday, as the overnight surplus liquidity stood at Rs. 175.78 billion.

USD/LKR 

In the Forex market, USD/LKR rate on the more active one-week forward contracts appreciated marginally yesterday to close the day at Rs. 197.00/197.50 in comparison with the previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 197.50/198.00.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 8 March was $ 36.50 million.   

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