Weekly averages ease across the board for first time in three weeks

Thursday, 6 June 2013 02:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

All three weighted averages (WAvg) dipped across the board for the first time in three weeks at yesterday’s Treasury bill auction with the 182-day bill WAvg reflecting the sharpest decline of 9 basis points (bp) to 9.81%.

Wealth Trust Securities said the 91-day WAvg dipped by 3 bp to 8.70%, while the 364-day reflected a drop of 1 bp to 10.85%. Once again, the 364-day maturity dominated the auction as it represented 82.5% of the total accepted amount of Rs. 24.6 billion, which was Rs. 11.6 billion higher than the initialled offered amount of Rs. 13 billion. In secondary bond markets, activity continued to remain high yesterday mainly surrounding the two liquid five year maturities (i.e.1.4.2018 and 15.8.2018) once again. Yields dipped in morning hours of trading to intraday lows of 11.06% and 11.11% respectively before closing the day mostly unchanged at levels of 11.08/10 and 11.13/14 in comparison its previous days closings. In addition, the 364 day bill was quoted at 10.80/86 in secondary markets as well. Surplus liquidity in money market dipped marginally to Rs. 19.3 billion yesterday as overnight call money and repo rates averaged 8.53% and 8.25% respectively. Central Bank continued to refrain from conducting any Open Market Operations (OMO) for a 14th consecutive day.

However, it announced its plans to mop up an amount of Rs. 6 billion by way of a seven day Repo auction to be conducted today with settlement for Friday, 7 June.

Rupee gains marginally for a second consecutive day

In dollar/rupee markets, the rupee gained marginally for a second consecutive day to close the day at Rs. 126.40/45 against its opening level of Rs. 126.50 on the back of export conversions. The total USD/LKR volume for the previous day (4 June) stood at US$ 45.57 million.