Bond market remains bearish ahead of weekly bills auction

Wednesday, 8 April 2026 02:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Wealth Trust Securities

Activity in the secondary Bond market remained rather dull yesterday with limited trades seen on the 01.07.28. 15.06.29, 2032’s (i.e. 01.10.32 & 15.12.32) and 01.06.33 maturities at levels of 9.75% to 9.80%, 9.85%, 10.80% and 11.00% respectively.

This comes ahead of the Treasury Bill auction due today, which will have a total amount of Rs. 30 billion on offer, a decrease of Rs. 60 billion over the previous week. This will consist of Rs. 10 billion each for the 91-day, the 182-day and the 364-day maturities.

At last week’s auction, weighted average rates increased across the board for a second consecutive week by 16, 14 and 9 basis points to 7.80%, 8.09% and 8.41% on the three maturities respectively. An amount of Rs. 32.70 billion was accepted in total at the auction against its offered amount of Rs. 90 billion.

The total secondary market Treasury Bond/Bill transacted volume for 6 April was Rs. 12.41 billion.

In the money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight call money and Repos remained mostly unchanged at 7.64% and 7.66% respectively as the net liquidity surplus stood at Rs. 225.43 billion yesterday.

The Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen draining out an amount of Rs. 40.00 billion by way of overnight repo auction at a weighted average rate of 7.55%. Further an amount of Rs. 201.43 billion was deposited at Central Bank’s SDFR (Standing Deposit Facility Rate) of 7.25% while an amount of Rs. 16 billion was withdrawn from the Central Bank’s SLFR (Standing Lending Facility Rate) of 8.25%.

Forex market

The USD/LKR rate on spot contracts was seen trading within the range of range of Rs. 315.43 to Rs. 315.48 yesterday before closing the day mostly unchanged at Rs. 315.45/50 against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 315.40/315.50.

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 06th April was $ 37.90 million.

(References: Public Debt Management Office - Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond Trading Platform, Money Broking Companies)