Secondary market bond yields decrease marginally

Thursday, 9 January 2020 00:53 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

Secondary market bond yields decreased marginally yesterday with the liquid maturities of 15.03.23, the two 2024s (i.e. 15.06.24 and 15.09.24) and 15.10.27 hitting intraday lows of 9.22%, 9.68% each and 9.85% against its previous day’s closing levels of 9.25/32, 9.65/70, 9.68/70 and 9.82/87 respectively. Furthermore, limited trades consisting of the 15.07.23, 01.09.23 and 15.05.30 maturities took place at levels of 9.35%, 9.45% and 10.15% respectively.

In the secondary bill market, 6 March 2020 and the latest 364 day maturity, changed hands at levels of 7.50% and 8.48% to 8.55% respectively. The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volumes for 7 January 2020 was Rs. 23.98 billion.

In money markets, the overnight call money and repo rates decreased marginally to average 7.45% and 7.51% respectively as the overnight net liquidity surplus in the system stood at Rs. 40.46 billion. The Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka conducted a term Reverse Repo auction, in lieu of a term reverse repo maturity of Rs. 26.18 billion and injected an amount Rs. 25.00 billion for 14 days at a weighted average rate of 7.52%, value today.

Rupee loses again

In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts was seen depreciating once again to close the day at Rs. 181.70/80 against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs. 181.25/35 on the back of renewed buying interest by banks.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 7 January 2020 was $ 105.85 million.

Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were one month - 182.20/40; three months - 183.20/40 and six months - 184.85/15.

(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, money broking companies)