Bond yields broadly steady in thin trade

Tuesday, 8 January 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

The secondary bond market yields were seen closing the day broadly steady yesterday, on the back of moderate activity.

Limited activity was witnessed on the short end to the belly end of the yield curve consisting of the maturities of the 01.05.20, three 2021s (i.e. 01.03.21, 01.05.21 and 15.12.21), 01.10.22, three 2023s (i.e. 15.05.23, 15.07.23 and 01.09.23), 15.03.25 and 01.08.26 at levels of 11.00%, 11.17% to 11.27%, 11.35% to 11.50%, 11.45% to 11.58%, 11.67% to 11.69% and 11.60% to 11.61% respectively.

In the money market, all efforts by the OMO department to inject liquidity on a permanent basis by way of outright purchase of Treasury Bills auctions were unsuccessful, as all bids received were rejected once again. However, it infused liquidity by way of an overnight and a seven day term reverse repo auctions for successful amounts of Rs. 30 billion each at a weighted average yield of 9.00%.

Further, an amount of Rs. 97.90 was granted through CBSL’s window rate of 9.00% as the net liquidity shortfall stood at high of Rs. 113.55 billion yesterday. The call money rate stood at 9.00% while no repo transactions were reported.

Rupee appreciates further

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on the spot rate appreciated further to close the day at Rs. 182.30/40 against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 182.65/75 on the back continued selling interest by banks.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 4 January was $ 111.66 million.

Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month – 183 25/50; three months – 185.10/50; and six months – 188.05/55.