Activity dries up in secondary bond market

By Wealth Trust Securities 

Activity in the secondary bond market dried up yesterday with most market participants being on the sideline. 

Active two-way quotes were mainly seen on the liquid maturities of 15.01.19, 01.08.24 and 01.08.26 at levels of 11.05/07, 11.65/70 and 11.67/75 while a limited amount of activity was witnessed on the four year maturity of 15 December 2021 at 11.50%.

The total secondary market Treasury bond transacted volume for 19 May 2017 was Rs. 7.6 billion.

In money markets, overnight call money and repo rates remained mostly unchanged to average 8.75% and 8.79% respectively as The Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen draining out an amount of Rs. 20.00 billion on an overnight basis at a weighted average of 7.28% by way of a repo auction. The net surplus liquidity in the system increased to Rs. 16.21 billion.

Rupee appreciates marginally 

The USD/LKR rate on the active spot next contracts appreciated marginally yesterday to close the day at Rs. 152.80/90 against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 152.95/00, on moderate trading.

 The total USD/LKR traded volume for 19 May 2017 was $ 32.05 million.

 Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month - 153.95/05; three months - 155.75/85 and six months - 158.75/85.