Weekly bill auction sees Rs. 61 b on offer; bond market sentiment dull

By Wealth Trust Securities 

The weekly bill auction due today will see a total volume of Rs. 61 billion on offer, an increase by Rs. 8 billion in comparison to its previous week’s total offered volume. This will consist of Rs. 18 billion each on the 91-day maturity and the 182-day maturity and further Rs. 25 billion on the 364-day maturity. 

At last week’s auction, the 91-day bill weighted average rate declined for a third consecutive week, recording another considerable dip of 21 basis points to 7.77%. The weighted average rates on the 182-day and 364-day bills too recorded decreases of nine and two basis points respectively to 8.03% and 8.17%.

Meanwhile, the dull sentiment in the secondary bond market continued yesterday with the maturities of 15.12.23, 15.03.24, 15.05.30 and 15.03.31 changing hands at levels of 8.80%, 9.20%, 11.55% to 11.73% and 11.845% to 11.86% respectively. In secondary bills, January and February 2022 maturities traded at levels of 7.10% and 7.40% to 7.50% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 22 November was Rs. 0.9 billion.   

In money markets, the Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen draining out amounts of Rs. 23.05 billion and Rs. 3 billion by way of overnight and three-day repo auctions respectively at weighted average rates of 5.99% and 5.97% while an amount of Rs. 71.19 billion was deposited at the Central Bank’s Standard Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) of 5%. 

The net liquidity deficit increased to Rs. 233.68 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 330.92 billion was withdrawn from the Central Bank’s Standard Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) of 6%. The weighted average rates on overnight call money and repo remained mostly unchanged at 5.93% and 5.97% respectively.

USD/LKR   

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts continued to trade at a level of Rs. 203 while the overall market remained inactive yesterday.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 22 November was $ 56.05 million.   

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