Saturday Sep 06, 2025
Saturday Sep 06, 2025
Thursday, 4 September 2025 04:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Wealth Trust Securities
At yesterday’s weekly Treasury Bill auction, only 67.10% of the total offered amount was raised, with successful bids amounting to Rs. 49.67 billion against the Rs. 74 billion on offer in the first phase of competitive bidding. This marked the second consecutive auction that fell short of fully raising the targeted amount.
Weighted average yields remained unchanged across all maturities, with the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day bills holding steady at 7.58%, 7.89%, and 8.03%, respectively. This broke a four-week trend during which at least one tenor had recorded a decline in yields at auction.
Interestingly, the 182-day maturity raised more than its respective offered amount, while the 91-day and 364-day maturities raised less than their respective offered amounts.
The Phase II of subscription on 91-day and 364-day maturities is now open until 3 p.m. of business day prior to settlement date (i.e., 04.09.2025) at the WAYRs determined for the said ISINs at the auction.
The Secondary Bond market remained mostly quiet for a third straight day. Trading was confined to a handful of transactions across limited maturities, leaving overall participation thin. The market was at a virtual standstill for much of the day, with yields holding broadly steady along most of the yield curve as market consolidation continued. However, yields on shorter tenors, particularly 2026 to early 2028 maturities edged up.
The 15.12.26 and 01.05.27 maturities traded at the rate of 8.25% and 8.60% respectively. The 15.12.29 maturity traded at the rate of 9.53% and the 15.09.34 at the rate of 10.80%.
In the Secondary Bills market, trades were observed in December 2025 maturities at the rate of 7.63%. Meanwhile, early March 2026 maturities traded at the rate of 8.02% and May 2026 at 8.01%-8.03%.
The total secondary market Treasury Bond/Bill transacted volume for 2 September was Rs. 7.98 billion.
In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight call money and Repo stood at 7.86% and 7.87% respectively.
The net liquidity surplus was recorded at Rs. 138.79 billion yesterday. An amount of Rs. 0.18 billion was withdrawn from the Central Bank’s SLFR (Standing Lending Facility Rate) of 8.25%, while an amount of Rs. 138.97 billion was deposited at Central Bank’s SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility
Rate) of 7.25%.
Forex market
In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts to closed slightly appreciated 302.08/302.13 as against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 302.12/302.20.
The total USD/LKR traded volume for 2 September 2025 was $ 60.15 million.
(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies)
