364 day bill weighted average crawls up by one basis point

Thursday, 21 February 2019 01:32 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

 

 

 

  • Bond market activity remains moderate

     

By Wealth Trust Securities

The weighted average yield of the 364 day bill was seen nudging up by 01 basis point to 10.73% at its auction conducted yesterday, while the weighted average on the 182 day bill remained unchanged at 9.87%. All bids received for the 91 day bill were rejected. The total offered amount of Rs. 22.5 billion was fully met as an amount of Rs. 20.4 billion was accepted on the 364 day maturity alone against its offered amount of Rs. 10.5 billion. The bids to offer ratio on the 364 day bill stood at 4.24: 1 while the overall bids to offer ratio was recorded at 2.68:1. 

However, activity in the secondary bond market remained rather dull yesterday with the maturities of 01.08.21, 01.08.26 and 15.06.27 trading at levels of 11.00%, 11.30% to 11.35% and 11.43% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volumes for 18 February was Rs. 7.82 billion. In the money market, the overnight call money and repo rates averaged 8.99% and 9.00% as the OMO Department of the Central Bank injected liquidity by way of an overnight and a seven day term repo auction for successful amounts of Rs. 10.00 billion each at weighted average yields of 8.97% and 8.96%. In addition, a total of Rs. 0.6 billion was injected by way of outright purchases of Treasury Bills for durations of 141 and 155 days at weighted averages ranging of 9.72% and 9.71% respectively. The net liquidity shortfall stood at Rs. 79.99 billion.

 

Rupee appreciates

The USD/LKR rate on spot contracts were seen trading within the range of Rs. 179.50 to Rs. 179.75 yesterday before closing the day at Rs. 179.60/75 against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 179.85/00 on the back of selling interest by banks.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 18 February was $ 34.67 million. Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were 1 month - 180.45/65; 3 months - 182.30/60 and 6 months - 185.30/60.

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