Secondary bond market yields remain steady subsequent to the weekly bill auction

Thursday, 22 May 2014 01:33 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth trust Securities

Secondary bonds market yields held steady across all maturities subsequent to the release of the Weekly Treasury bill auction results, where the weighted averages remained mostly unchanged when compared against the previous week’s levels. The 91 day and 364 day maturities recorded weighted averages of 6.57% and 7.02% while the weighted average of the 182 day bill dipped by 01 basis point to 6.75%. The most favored 364 day bill continued to dominate the auction as it represented 57% of the total accepted amount, which in turn was marginally higher than the total offered amount of Rs.11 billion. The secondary bond market witnessed moderate activity with the liquid 01.04.2018 and 01.07.2019 maturities closing the day marginally lower at levels 8.50/52 and 8.98/99. The yields on 01.11.2015 and 01.09.2016 closed the day at levels of 7.20/25 and 9.58/62. In the meantime treasury bills maturing in August 2014 traded within a range of 6.58% to 6.62% while maturities nearing the 364 day bill were quoted between 6.98% and 7.02%. In money markets, overnight call money and repo rates remained steady to average 6.94% and 6.53%, as surplus liquidity in the market stood at Rs. 6.93 billion (Bn). The Open Market Operations (OMO) department of the Central Bank mopped up an amount of Rs 2.72 Bn on a two day basis at a WAvg of 6.58% while a further amount of Rs 4.21 Bn was deposited at CBSL’s Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) of 6.50%.

Rupee holds steady The USD/LKR rate remained steady to close the day at Rs 130.36/38 yesterday as markets were at equilibrium. The total USD/LKR traded volume for the previous day (20-05-14) stood at US $ 87.55 million. Some of the forward dollar rates that prevailed in the market were 1 Month - 130.86; 3 Months - 131.83 and 6 Months - 133.32.