Secondary market yields edge up marginally as market awaits outcomes

Yields on secondary market bonds edged up marginally yesterday mainly on the two liquid five year maturities (i.e. 15.8.2018 and 1.4.2018) to an intraday high of 11.18% ahead of the weekly Treasury bill auction due today and the monthly monitory policy announcement due on the 8 of March.

Furthermore, a limited amount of activity was witnessed on the two and four year maturities as well in addition to maturities centering on the 364 day bill trading within the range of 11.09% to 11.11%. At last week’s auction, yields remained unchanged on the 182 day and 364 day bill while the 91 day bill dipped by 1 basis point to record weighted averages of 10.08%, 11.10% and 9.09% respectively.

Meanwhile in money markets, liquidity remained at a surplus of Rs. 38.7 billion yesterday with Rs. 37.3 billion been drained out by  Open Market Operations (OMO) Department of the Central Bank at a weighted average of 8.35% by way of an overnight Repo auction. This led to overnight call money and repo rates remaining steady to averaged 9.41% and 8.56% respectively.

The rupee remained stable at levels of Rs. 127.40-Rs. 127.45 as volumes traded moderated. The total USD/LKR volume for the previous day (4.3.13) was at US $ 50.09 million.