Money market liquidity tops Rs. 35 b once again

 By Wealth Trust Securities

After a laps of three days, money market liquidity on an overnight basis increased once again above Rs.35 billion to record a surplus of Rs.39.16 billion yesterday with an amount of Rs.34.07 been mopped up from the system on an overnight basis by way of Repo auction conducted by Open Market Operations (OMO) department of Central bank at a weighted average of 8.35%.

A dollar/rupee swap at where rupees are infused into the system was seen as the reasons behind the increase in liquidity according to market sources. In line with this a total amount of Rs 4.75 Bn was mopped up as well for durations of 14 days and 21 days at weighted averages of 8.76% and 8.85% respectively by way of outright sales of Treasury bills, value dated today. Overnight call money and repo rates remained steady to average 8.58% and 9.48% once again.

In secondary bond markets, selling pressure saw yields edge up marginally yesterday, mainly on the five year maturity at levels of 11.44% and the eight year maturity at levels ranging from 11.75% to 11.80% respectively. Buying interest on secondary market bills saw the 364 day bill continue to change at levels of 11.32% and 11.33%.

Meanwhile, in Forex markets, the rupee remained mostly unchanged within the range of Rs.125.63 /125.68 in comparison to its previous day’s closing levels of Rs.125.55/125.60. The total USD/LKR traded volume for the previous day (17-04-13) stood at US $ 73.13 million. Given below are some forward dollar rates that prevailed in the market 1 Month -  126.80; 3 Months - 128.83 and  6 Months  -              131.78