Friday, 21 February 2014 00:39
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By Wealth Trust Securities
Secondary bond market trades continued its active momentum with the two liquid 2018 maturities (i.e. 15 August 2018 and 1 April 2018) declining by eight basis points each to one month lows of 8.80% and 8.90% respectively.
However, selling interest at these levels restricted any further decline in yields as activity dried up towards the later part of the day. A limited amount of activity was also witnessed on the 1 January 2017, 15 July 2017 and 1 July 2019 as well, at levels of 7.80% to 7.90%, 8.45% to 8.60%, and 9.05% to 9.10%. In the secondary bill market the 364 day bill was quoted at levels of 7.05%-7.10%.
With regard to the money market, a total surplus volume of Rs. 4.41 billion was deposited at CBSL’s Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) of 6.50% as the Central Bank refrained from conducting any auction under its Open Market Operations (OMO). This in turn helped overnight call money and repo rates to hold at an average 6.98% and 6.44%.
In the meantime the Open Market Operations (OMO) department of the CBSL mopped up Rs. 18.06 billion through term repo auctions ranging from 28 days to 77 days at weighted averages ranging from 6.72% to 6.80% respectively. This was seen as an effort to drain out liquidity on a more permanent basis.
Rupee on spot contracts dip
In the forex market the USD/LKR on spot contracts lost ground marginally to a daily low of Rs.130.95 from its previous day’s closing level of Rs.130.85/90 on the back of importer demand.
The total USD/LKR traded volume for the previous day (19 February 2014) stood at US$ 38.15 million.
Some of forward dollar rates that prevailed in the market were one month – 131.52; three months -132.63; and six months – 134.13.
