Bond yields dip further ahead of monetary policy announcement

Friday, 24 March 2017 02:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

Secondary bond market yields were seen dipping further yesterday with the liquid maturities of 15.12.21 and 01.08.26 hitting intraday lows of 12.92% and 13.15% respectively against its previous day’s closing levels of 12.95/05 and 13.20/30. 06-FFFF

This was ahead of today’s monetary policy announcement, the second for 2017 due at 7.30 a.m. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka kept policy rates unchanged for a sixth consecutive occasion at its last review held on 7 February 2017.

The total secondary market Treasury bond transacted volume for 22 March was Rs. 2.35 billion. Given below are the closing secondary market yields for the most frequently traded T-bills and bonds.

In money markets, the overnight call money and repo rates remained mostly unchanged to average 8.50% and 8.54% respectively as the net deficit in the system dipped to Rs. 13.16 billion yesterday. The OMO Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen infusing an amount of Rs. 9.00 billion at a weighted average of 8.50%, by way of an overnight reverse repo auction.\

Rupee remains mostly unchanged

The USD/LKR rate on the active two-week forward contract remained mostly unchanged for a second consecutive day to close the day at levels of Rs. 152.40/50 as activity remained moderate.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 22 March 2017 was $ 50.00 million.

Given below are some forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market.