Massive demand at weekly T bill auction leads to record amount as WAY dips further

Substantial demand for the 364 day bill at its weekly Treasury bill auction yesterday helped authorities accept Rs. 34.6 billion, exceeding the initial offered amount of Rs. 24 billion.

Wealth Trust Securities said the 364 day bill alone drew successful bids of Rs. 29.8 billion or 86% of the total accepted amount as its Weighted Average Yield (WAY) declined for a sixth straight week by nine basis points to 11.26%.



The WAY on the 182 day bill dipped the most by 23 basis points to 10.58% while the 91 day bill dipped by 13 basis points to 9.75% for a sixth straight week as well.

Wealth Trust also said activity in secondary bond markets remained moderate yesterday ahead of the Central Bank’s monthly monetary policy announcement due today.

A limited amount of activity was witnessed on the two five year maturities (15 August 2018 and 1 April 2018) once again at levels of 10.90% and 11.04% respectively.

“However buying interest on secondary market bills was evident subsequent to the auction with the 91 day and 182 bills changing hands at levels of 9.60% and 10.40% respectively while the 364 day bill was seen changing hands within the range of 11.13% to 11.17%,” Wealth Trust said.

Meanwhile in Forex markets yesterday, the rupee remained stable at levels of Rs. 126.50-Rs. 126.65 on the back of thin volumes. The total dollar/rupee volume for the previous day (12 January 2013) was US$ 86.29 million.