Activity remains moderate ahead of weekly bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

Activity in secondary bond markets continued to remain moderate yesterday, ahead of today’s weekly Treasury bills auction. 

A limited amount of trades were witnessed consisting of the15.12.21 and 01.01.24 maturities at levels of 13.00% and 13.30% respectively.

This was ahead of today’s weekly Treasury bill auction, where a total amount of Rs. 27 billion will be on offer, consisting of Rs. 9.5 billion each of the 91 day and 182 day maturities and a further Rs. 8 billion of the 364 day maturity. At last week’s auction, all bids of all three maturities were rejected for the first time in 22 weeks.

The total secondary market Treasury bond transacted volume for 20 March 2017 was Rs. 0.7 billion. Given below are the closing, secondary market yields for the most frequently traded T – bills and bonds.

In money markets, the OMO Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen infusing an amount of Rs. 6.6 billion at a weighted average of 8.50% by way of an overnight reverse repo auction as the net deficit in the system stood at Rs. 17.84 billion. The overnight call money and repo rates averaged 8.50% and 8.54% respectively.

Rupee appreciates marginally 

The USD/LKR rate on the active, two week forward contracts appreciated further yesterday to close the day at levels of Rs. 152.35/45 against the previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 152.40/50, with moderate activity.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 17 March was $ 95.50 million.

Given below are some forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market.