Marginal increase in Treasury bill weekly averages

By Wealth Trust Securities

The weighted averages at yesterday’s weekly Treasury bill auction continued to increase for the tenth consecutive week with the yields of the 182 day and 364 day maturities increasing by two basis points each to 9.79% and 11.11%, and the 91 day bill increasing by one basis point to 9.73%. 

The total accepted amount stood at Rs.21.4 billion against the total offered amount of Rs. 21 billion.

In the secondary bond market, yields remained mostly unchanged with moderate activity consisting of the two 2019 maturities (i.e. 01.07.19 and 01.11.19), two 2024 maturities (i.e. 01.01.24 and 01.08.24) and 01.08.26 maturity, at yields ranging between 11.80% to 11.81%, 12.00% to 12.03%, 12.64% to 12.66%, 12.65% to 12.66% and 12.70% to 12.76% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond Transacted volume for 18 April 2017 was Rs. 4.35 billion.

In the money market, overnight call money and repo rates remained mostly unchanged to average at 8.75% and 8.74% respectively, as the net surplus liquidity in the system increased further to Rs. 33.71 billion. The Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka continued to drain out an amount of Rs. 33.00 billion on an overnight basis at a weighted average of 7.45% by way of an overnight repo auction. 

Rupee depreciates 

The rupee on two week forward contracts was seen depreciating to close the day at Rs. 153.45/50 against its previous day’s closing levels of 153.10/20 on the back of importer demand. The total USD/LKR traded volume for 18 April 2017 was $ 35.20 million.

Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month - 154.05/10; three months - 156.05/15 and six months - 159.35/50.

The closing, secondary market yields for the most frequently traded T – bills and bonds