Dull sentiment in bond market continues ahead of the weekly Treasury bill auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

The dull sentiment in secondary bond markets continued yesterday, with a limited amount of activity seen on the two 2018 maturities (i.e. 15.10.18 and 15.11.18) at highs of 11.55% and 11.60% respectively. 

Today’s weekly bill auction will have on offer a total amount of Rs. 27.5 billion consisting of Rs.13.0 billion of the 91 day maturity, Rs. 9.5 billion of the 182 day maturity and a further Rs. 5 billion of the 364 day maturity. At last week’s auction, weighted averages continued to increase for a seventh consecutive week, with the 182 day maturity reflecting an increase of 16 basis points to register a three-year eight-month high of 10.05%.

In money markets, the OMO (Open Market Operations) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen mopping up an amount of Rs. 54.62 billion on an overnight basis by way of a Repo auction at a WAvg of 7.54% while the net surplus liquidity stood at Rs. 55.62 billion. The overnight call money and repo rates averaged 8.40% and 8.43% respectively

Rupee appreciates

 The dollar/rupee rate on two week contracts was seen appreciating marginally to close the day at Rs. 150.95/05 against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 151.05/15.

 The total USD/LKR traded volume for 23 January 2017 was $ 73.74 million.

Some of forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were three months - 152.95/10 and six months -155.35/50.