Secondary bond market activity at a complete standstill

By Wealth Trust Securities

Sentiment in the secondary bond market turned bearish yesterday, as activity came to a complete standstill with the yields on two-way quotes widening.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volumes for 17 November 2017 was Rs. 2.66 billion.

Meanwhile, in money markets, the weighted average yield of overnight call money and repos remained mostly unchanged at 8.14% and 7.57% respectively as the net surplus liquidity in the system increased to Rs. 27.07 billion. The Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka drained out an amount of Rs. 4.71 billion on an overnight basis at a weighted average of 7.25% by way of a repo auction.

Rupee dips marginally

In Forex markets, the spot rate was seen deprecating marginally yesterday to close the day at Rs. 153.75/80 against the previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 153.70/75 on the back of importer dollar demand.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 17 November 2017 was $ 53.7 million.

Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month - 154.55/70; three months - 156.40/65 and six months - 159.10/30.