Buying interest continues on secondary market bills

By Wealth Trust Securities

Buying interest on secondary market bills was evident towards the latter part of yesterday as well, with the main focus been on the 182 day bill as significant volumes were seen changing hands within the range of 11.96% to 12.00% once again. Furthermore demand for odd dated bill maturities was apparent as well, centring on the 182 day duration.

However activity in the secondary bond market dried up yesterday as yields remained steady during the day with active two way quotes mainly seen on the three year, five year and six year maturities at levels of 12.45% - 12.55%, 12.60% - 12.70% and 13.05% - 13.15% respectively.

In money markets, Central Bank continued to drain liquidity from the system on an overnight basis for a second consecutive day by way of a repo auction conducted by its Open markets Operation (OMO) department for an amount of Rs 3 billion at a weighted average of 9.32%, while liquidity was at a net surplus of Rs 4.2 billion yesterday. This in turn saw overnight call money and repo rates remain steady to average 10.53% and 9.65% respectively. The rupee lost ground by around 20 cents during early hours of trade yesterday to an intraday day low of Rs 128.95 but gained most of its lost ground once again towards the latter part of the day to close the day at Rs 128.80 on the back of forward dollar sales. The total dollar/rupee volume for the previous day (05-12-12) was US $ 54.52 million.