Thursday, 20 June 2013 00:50
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Secondary market bond yields dipped for the first time in a week following yesterday’s weekly Treasury bill auction as considerable buying interest was witnessed in the market. At yesterday’s auction, weighted averages (WAvg) on the 182 day and 364 day maturities remained unchanged for a second consecutive week at 9.80% and 10.85% respectively while the WAvg on the 91 day decreased for a fourth consecutive week to 8.66%.
Interestingly, the total accepted amount was lower than the initial total offered amount for the first time in 10 weeks as Rs. 10.75 billion was accepted in total against its initial total offered amount of Rs. 12 billion with the 364 day bill representing 66% of this volume, confirming markets continued appetite for this duration.
In secondary bond markets, activity continued to surround the two liquid five year maturities (i.e. 1.4.2018 and 15.8.2018) as its yields dipped to intraday lows of 11.20% and 11.24% respectively against its opening levels of 11.27% and 11.28% as considerable buying interest was witnessed subsequent to the release of the weekly auction results.
In addition, activity on the eight year maturity was witnessed once again as it closed the day at levels of 11.53/60. The 364 day bill was seen been quoted at levels of 10.70/80 subsequent to the auction while durations close the 364 day bill was seen changing hands within the range of 10.75% to 10.78% in secondary markets.
In money markets yesterday, overnight call money and repo rates remained steady to average 8.51% and 8.14% respectively despite overnight surplus liquidity dipping marginally to Rs. 16.10 billion. The Open Market Operations (OMO) department of Central Bank drained an amount of Rs. 11.23 billion at a weighted average of 7.79% by way of an overnight Repo auction while a further Rs. 4.8 billion was deposited at its repo window rate of 7.00%.
Rupee gains to a weekly high of Rs. 128
Export conversions coupled with continued selling on forward dollar contacts saw the USD/LKR rate gain to a weekly high of Rs. 128 yesterday against its previous day’s closing level of Rs 128.55/60. The total USD/LKR volume for the previous day stood at US$ 67.15 million. Given are some forward dollar rates that prevailed in the market: One month – 128.78, three months – 130.15 and six months – 132.15.
