Secondary market bond activity dries up once again

By Wealth Trust Securities

Activity in secondary bond markets dried up once again yesterday as market participants were seen adopting a wait and see approach at the start of this week following increases in yields throughout last week.

Two way quotes were mainly seen on the liquid two five year maturities (i.e. 1 April 2018 and 15 August 2018), with very thin volumes seen changing hands on the April 2018 maturity at levels of 11.23% as these maturities closed the day at levels of 11.21/24 and 11.25/28 respectively. In addition the eight year maturity was seen been quoted at levels of 11.50/60 while the 364 day bill quotes were seen at 10.80/85.

In money markets yesterday, overnight surplus liquidity increased once again to Rs. 15.276 b as an amount of Rs. 12.38 b was mopped up from the system by way of a Repo auction at a weighted average of 7.76% on an overnight basis. Overnight call money and repo rates remained steady to average 8.65% and 8.15% respectively.

Rupee closes the day steady

The rupee closed the day steady at Rs. 128.55/60 against its previous weeks closing levels subsequent to dropping to an intraday low of Rs. 128.80. The total USD/LKR traded volume for the previous day (14 June 2013) stood at US$ 62.64 million. Some of the forward dollar rates that prevailed in the market were one month – 129.32; three months – 131 and six months – 133.13.