Activity dries up ahead of monetary policy announcement
Tuesday, 27 January 2015 00:24
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By Wealth Trust Securities
Two-way quotes in secondary bond markets were seen widening towards the latter part of yesterday as activity dried up ahead of today’s monetary policy announcement for the month of January.
The limited amount of quotes were mainly seen on the maturities of 15 May 2017, the two 2018s (i.e. 1 April 2018 and 15 August 2018), the two 2019s (i.e. 1 July 2019 and 1 November 2019), the 1 May 2021 and the 1 July 2022 at levels of 6.95/05, 7.05/15, 7.12/18, 7.20/25, 7.30/35, 7.60/65 and 7.70/80 respectively.
Meanwhile in Treasury bill markets, March 2015 and May 2015 durations changed hands within the range of 5.55% to 5.65% and 5.78% to 5.82%. In money markets, overnight call money and repo rates remained steady to average 5.80% and 5.14% respectively as the Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of Central Bank refrained from conducting any auction yesterday. The surplus liquidity stood at Rs. 16.31 billion.
Rupee continues to dip further
The rupee on spot next contracts (three day forwards) dipped further yesterday to close the day at Rs. 133.00/15 on the back of continued importer demand. The total USD/LKR traded volume for 23 January was $ 55 million.
Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month – 133.50; three months – 134.50; and six months – 135.90.
