Upward trend persists in secondary markets as weekly auction rates edge up

Thursday, 9 April 2015 01:29 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities The upward trend in secondary market Bond yields continued yesterday as well, driven by the outcome of the weekly Treasury Bill auction at where weighted averages (W.Avgs) were seen reversing its downward trend witnessed over the previous four weeks. The W.Avg on the 182 day bill reflected the sharpest increase of 15 basis points (bp) to 6.83% closely followed by the 364 day Bill reflecting an increase of 14 bp to 6.90%. However, the increase on the 91 day Bill was limited to just 01 bp to record 6.56%. An additional amount of Rs. 1.7 billion was accepted at the auction against its initial total offered amount of Rs.24 billion with the 182 day Bill representing 43% of this volume. In secondary Bond markets, selling interest centering the liquid maturities of 15 May 2017, 1 June 2018, 15 September 2019, 1 August 2021 and 1 September 2023 maturities saw it change hands within daily lows of 8.15%, 8.73%, 9.00%, 9.42% and 9.77% respectively to highs of 8.29%, 8.80%, 9.08%, 9.48% and 9.80% as volumes changing hands remained very high. Meanwhile in money markets, overnight call money and repo rates edged up marginally to average 6.70% and 6.65% respectively as surplus liquidity decreased further to Rs. 34.56 b yesterday. Rupee remains mostly unchanged The dollar/rupee (USD/LKR) rate on one week forward contracts remained mostly unchanged to close the day at Rs. 133.25/30 yesterday. The total USD/LKR traded volume for 7 April was at $ 23.89 million. Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were: one month – 133.72; three months – 134.82; and six months – 136.40.