CBSL injects term funds for a third time in one month

The Open Market Operations (OMO) department of Central Bank conducted its third successful term reverse repo auction within a period of one month yesterday, as it injected an amount of Rs 8 Bn valued for today at a weighted average of 9.86% for a period 31 days. In addition it injected a further Rs 4.5 Bn on an overnight basis yesterday at a weighted average of 9.72% for the first time in ten days

. However market liquidity was at a net deficit of Rs 5.5 Bn yesterday, due to a further amount of Rs 1.6 Bn been accessed from Central Bank’s discount window of 9.75%, while Rs 0.69 Bn was deposited at its repo window of 7.75%. Overnight call money and repo rates remained mostly unchanged to average 10.56% and 9.67% respectively.

In secondary bond markets, a limited amount of activity was witnessed on the five year maturity yesterday at levels of 12.80% to 12.85%, as overall activity continued to remain rather dull. However in secondary market Treasury bills, buying interest was witnessed on short tenure bills subsequent to the announcement of the term reverse repo auction, while the 364 day bill was seen changing hands within the range of 12.55% to 12.60%.

In Forex markets yesterday, the USD/LKR rate dipped marginally by 15 cents to close the day at Rs 130.40 on continued importer demand. The total USD/LKR traded volume for the previous day (31-10-12) stood at US $ 77.35 million. (Source: Wealth Trust Securities Ltd)