Lacklustre environment in bond markets ahead of weekly bills auction

By Wealth Trust Securities

The secondary bond market commenced the week on a rather dull note yesterday with limited trades seen on the 01.08.21 and 15.03.24 maturities within the range of 10.80% to 10.90% and 11.05% to 11.08% respectively.

Today’s weekly bill auction, conducted a day ahead due to a shortened trading week, will have on offer a total amount of Rs. 24 billion, consisting of Rs. 2 billion each of the 91 day and 182 day maturities and a further Rs. 20 billion on the 364 day maturity. At last week’s auction, the weighted average on the 364 day bill continued to decrease for a third consecutive week, recording a drop of 6 basis points to 10.58%. The weighted averages on the 91 day and 182 day bills stood at 9.55% and 9.87% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volumes for 15 March was Rs. 13.83 billion.

In money markets, the OMO (Open Market Operations) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen injecting an amount of Rs. 15billion on an overnight basis by way of a Reverse Repo auction at a weighted average of 8.82%, as the net liquidity shortfall in the system stood at Rs. 19.44 billion yesterday. The overnight call money and repo rates averaged at 8.85% and 8.88% respectively.

Rupee appreciates marginally 

In the Forex market, the rupee on spot contracts appreciated marginally to close at Rs. 178.25/35 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 178.45/55 on the back of selling interest by Banks.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 15 March was $ 121.00 million.

Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month - 179.20/35; three months - 181.00/30 and six months - 184.00/30.