Bond auctions rejected for first time since February 2017

• Rs. 48 b on offer on T-bill auctions
• Rupee dips to 300

By Wealth Trust Securities

All bids received for the two Treasury bond auctions conducted yesterday were rejected, the first such instance since February 2017 where bids on all auctioned maturities were rejected.

Given in Figure 1 are the details of the auction.

Meanwhile, activity in the secondary bond market remained dull yesterday with only the 01.09.23 maturity changing hands at a level of 14.00%. In secondary bills, June 2022 maturities traded within the range of 11.90% to 12.20%.

Today’s bill auction will have on offer Rs. 48 billion, consisting of Rs. 18 billion on the 91-day, Rs. 12 billion on the 182-day and a further Rs. 18 billion on the 364-day maturities. At last week’s auction, the weighted average rates increased across the broad to 12.10%, 11.98% and 12.00% respectively. The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 28 March 2022 was Rs. 0.73 billion.  

In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight Call money and REPO were at 7.49% and 7.50% respectively as an amount of Rs. 646.08 billion was withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 7.50%. The net liquidity deficit was registered at Rs. 53.27 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs. 132.81 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 6.50%.

 

Forex market 

The USD/LKR rate on spot contracts was seen dipping to an intraday low of Rs. 330.00 yesterday from its days opening high of Rs. 298.97.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 28 March 2022 was $ 18.50 million. 

(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies.)