Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Thursday, 7 July 2022 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Wealth Trust Securities Ltd.
The steep increasing trend in primary market weighted average rates continued at yesterday’s Treasury bill auction, with weighted averages on all three maturities galloping by a minimum 400 basis points to exceed 28.00%, a level not witnessed over the past 25 years.
The 182 day bill recorded the highest increase of 434 basis points to 28.74% closely followed by the 91 and 364 day maturities by 423 and 427 basis points to 28.08% and 28.11% respectively. The total offered amount was fully taken up at its 1st phase of the auction after a lapse of two weeks which totalled Rs. 70 billion. The bids to offer ratio decreased to a 66-week low of 1.20:1. The phase 2 of the auction was opened until close of business of the day prior to settlement (i.e., 3:30 p.m. today). Given below are the details of the auction,
The sentiment in the secondary bond market remained gloomy yesterday while activity was at a standstill ahead of today’s monetary policy announcement. In secondary bills market, the latest 182 day and 364 day maturities were traded at a high of 30.00%.
The fifth monetary policy announcement for the year 2022 is due today at 7:30 a.m. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka kept policy rates unchanged at its previous announcement on 19 May at 13.50% and 14.50%.
The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 5 July was Rs. 1.4 billion.
Forex market
In the Forex market, the middle rate for USD/LKR spot contracts depreciated marginally to Rs. 359.8167 yesterday against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 359.7941.
The total USD/LKR traded volume for 5 July was $ 41.90 million.
(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies)
