Upward trend persists in secondary bond markets ahead of weekly Treasury bill auction
Wednesday, 29 January 2014 00:00
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By Wealth Trust Securities
Yields in secondary bond markets picked up further yesterday on most maturities across the yield curve ahead of the weekly Treasury bill auction due today. The market favourite 2018 maturities (i.e. 01.04.2018 & 15.08.2018) were seen increasing to intraday high of 9.10% and 9.15% respectively against their previous days closings of 8.97/02 and 9.02/05 while the 2019 maturities (i.e. 15.01.2019 and 01.07.2019) were seen changing hands at levels of 9.30% and 9.20% respectively.
In addition, the 01.04.2016 maturity was traded within the range of 8.20% to 8.30% as well. Meanwhile in secondary bill markets, selling interest persisted with durations ranging from July to August 2014 been offered at levels of 6.95% to 7.05% while January 2015 bills were quoted at levels of 7.13% to 7.18%.
At today’s auction, Rs. 2 billion, Rs. 5 billion and Rs. 8 billion will be on offer on the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day bills respectively. At last week’s auction, weighted averages (WAvg) remained unchanged for the first time in seventeen (17) weeks on the 182-day and 364-day maturities at 7.02% and 7.15% with the total accepted amount been lower than the total offered amount for the first time in thirteen (13) weeks as well. However the WAvg on the 91-day bill dipped by 2 basis points to 6.84%.
In money markets, surplus liquidity was at Rs. 54.17 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 16.80 billion was mopped up from the system on a three day basis by way of a Repo auction conducted by the Open Market Operations (OMO) department of the Central Bank at a WAvg of 6.68% while a further Rs. 37.37 billion was deposited at its Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) of 6.50%. Meanwhile overnight call money and repo rates continued to remain steady to average 7.40% and 6.74% respectively.
Rupee stable
Meanwhile in Forex markets, the rupee remained mostly unchanged to close the day at levels of Rs. 130.80/87. The total USD/LKR traded volume for the previous day (27 January 2014) stood at $ 46.70 million.
Some forward dollar rates that prevailed in the market were 1-Month: Rs. 131.22, 3-Months: Rs. 131.96 and 6-Months: Rs. 133.09.
