Weekly bill auction rejected for first time in 22 weeks

Thursday, 16 March 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

All bids received for yesterday’s weekly Treasury bill auction were rejected for the first time in 22 weeks as market participants were seen demanding higher yields. Given below are the details of the auction.

In the secondary bond market, momentum turned dull with most market participants being on the sidelines. Limited trades were seen on the maturities of 15.12.21 and 01.08.24 at levels of 13.10% and 13.15% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond transacted volume for 14 March 2017 was Rs. 1.9 billion. Given below are the closing, secondary market yields of the most frequently traded T-bills and bonds.

In money markets, the Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen infusing an amount of Rs. 14.00 billion at a weighted average of 8.50%, by way of an overnight reverse repo auction as the net liquidity shortfall in the system dipped to Rs. 13.93 billion yesterday. The overnight call money and repo rates averaged 8.50% and 8.58% respectively.

Rupee loses ground further

The rupee on the active two weeks forward contracts depreciated further for a sixth consecutive day to close the day at Rs. 153.00/35 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 152.75/85 on the back of importer demand and a strengthening dollar internationally.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 14 March 2017 was $ 107.36 million.

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