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Thursday, 3 November 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Wealth Trust Securities
Reversing an upward trend witnessed over the previous two weeks, the weekly Treasury bill weighted averages were seen declining at its auction held yesterday.
The 364 day bill reflected a sharp drop of 14 basis points to 10.10% while the 182 day bill registered a drop of 01 basis point to 9.47%. The weighted average on the 91 day maturity stood steadily at 8.60%. The auction attracted an amount of Rs. 18.98 billion in successful bids against its total offered amount of Rs. 22.5 billion.
In the secondary bond market, activity moderated with the 15.09.19, 15.05.30 and 15.03.35 maturities changing hands within the range of 11.48% to 11.53%, 12.10% to 12.13% and 12.30% to 12.36% respectively.
In the secondary bill market, the April 2017 and September 2017 maturities were traded at levels of 9.60% and 10.30% respectively. Given below are the closing, secondary market yields of the most frequently traded maturities,
In money markets, the overnight repo rate increased further to average 8.77% as the net deficit in the system stood at Rs. 34.55 billion. The Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka injected an amount of Rs. 35.00 billion on an overnight basis by way of a Reverse Repo auction at a W. Avg of 8.50%. The overnight call money rate remained steady at 8.42%.
Further rupee losses
The USD/LKR rate on one week forward contracts depreciated further to close the day at Rs. 148.80/90 against its previous day’s closing levels of Rs.148.55/65 on the back of continued importer demand and foreign selling in rupee bonds. The total USD/LKR traded volume for 1 November 2016 was $ 17.70 million.
Some of the forward USD/LKR rates that prevailed in the market were 1 month - 149.40/70; three months - 151.10/30 and six months - 153.40/75.
