Secondary markets stagnant ahead of weekly Treasury bill auction

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 01:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

Activity in secondary bond markets dried up yesterday ahead of today’s weekly Treasury bill auction. At today’s auction a total amount of Rs. 15 b is on offer with Rs. 1 b on the 91 day, Rs. 3 b on the 182 day and Rs. 11 b on the 364 day bills respectively.

At last week’s auction, weighted averages dived by 43 basis points (bp), 29 bp and 45 bp respectively following a 50 bp policy rate cut to 8.75%, 9.91% and 10.84%.

In secondary bond and bill markets, a very limited amount of activity was witnessed yesterday with the five year maturity changing hands at levels of 11.01% to 11.02% and the eight year at levels 11.50%. In addition, the 364 day bill was seen been traded at levels of 10.80% once again.

In money markets, liquidity returned to a surplus of Rs. 2.04 b yesterday as the Open Market Operations (OMO) department refrained from conducting any forms of auctions. Overnight call money and repo rates remained steady to average 9.00% and 8.35% respectively.

Rupee holds steady

The USD/LKR rate held steady yesterday at levels of Rs. 126.30 despite demand for contracts valued cash. The total USD/LKR volume for the previous day stood at US$ 46.50 million.

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