Debt market activity remains dull ahead of weekly bill auction

Activity in secondary markets for Treasury bills and bonds was rather stagnant yesterday, with a limited amount of activity seen on the five-year maturity, as its yields dipped marginally to an intraday low of 11.40%.

Similarly there were some active quotes on both the three-year and eight-year maturities as well at levels of 11.25%-11.30% and 11.75%-11.85% respectively. Furthermore, the secondary market for Treasury bills witnessed some buying pressure with the one-year maturity trading at levels of 11.30%.



Today’s Treasury bill primary auction will have on offer a total amount of Rs. 7 b, consisting of Rs. 1 b each on the 91-day and 182-day bills and a further Rs. 5 b on the 364-day bill. The weighted averages on all three maturities dipped by one basis point at last week’s auction wherein total an amount of Rs. 14 b was accepted against its total offered amount of Rs. 8 b.

Meanwhile in money markets, the Open Market Operations (OMO) department of the Central Bank drained out an amount of Rs. 23.94 b at a weighted average of 8.35% by way of an overnight Repo auction yesterday as surplus liquidity in money markets remained high at Rs.26.86 billion. This intern saw overnight call money and repo rates remain steady to average 9.49% and 8.58% respectively.

Rupee dips below Rs 126.50 for first time in three weeks

The rupee dipped as much as 75 cents yesterday on the back of demand for contracts valued cash, tom and spot as demand outweighed supply. The USD/LKR rate dipped to an intraday low of Rs. 126.80 from its opening levels of Rs. 126.05. The total USD/LKR volume for the previous day stood at US$ 76.50 million.