Rupee slips further

The rupee continued to depreciate as further import demand was witnessed on it, Wealth Trust Securities said.

It said the rupee dipped to an intraday low of Rs.127.30 from its opening levels of Rs. 127 and closed the day at Rs. 127.35.

However the volume remained rather moderate. The total USD/LKR volume for the previous day (18 February) was at US$ 20.65 million.

Some of the forward dollar rates that prevailed in the market were one month at 128.15, three months at 130 and six months at 132.85.

Meanwhile in secondary bond markets, Wealth Trust said activity picked up yesterday, with the liquid five year maturities (i.e. 15 August 2018 and 1 April 2018) changing hands at levels of 10.90%-11%. In addition, the 364 day bill was seen changing hands at levels of 11.08%, ahead of its weekly bill auction due today. The Public Debt Department (PDD) of Central Bank announced in total an amount of Rs. 21 billion on offer for the auction, in comparison to its last week’s offered amount of Rs. 15 billion.

At last week’s auction, weighted averages were seen decreasing on the 91 day and 182 day bills by 15 and eight basis points (bp) respectively, while the 364 day bill dipped by only one bp.

In money markets, overnight call money and repo rates remained mostly unchanged yesterday at levels of 9.50%-9.60% and 8.55%-8.65% respectively as market surplus liquidity remained high of Rs. 24.6 billion. Furthermore, an amount of Rs. 21.6 billion was mopped up on an overnight basis at a weighted average of 8.35% by the Central Bank through its Open Market Operations (OMO).