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Daily report for the 05th March 2025 – Courtesy Wealth Trust Securities Ltd
- T-Bill Rates Drop for the 17th Straight Week at Auction
- Secondary Bond Market Closes Broadly Steady
- Rupee Depreciates Marginally
At the weekly Treasury Bill auction conducted on Tuesday the weighted average yields across all three offered maturities declined for the 13th consecutive week. This marks a continued downward trend, with yields on at least one tenor decreasing over the past 17 weeks. Accordingly, the weighted average rates on the 91-day tenor dropped by 04 basis points to 7.53%, the 182-day tenor by 01 basis points to 7.86% and the 364-day tenor by 01 basis point to 8.34%.
Total bids received exceeded the offered amount by 1.90 times, and the entire Rs 167.00 billion on offer was successfully raised in the 1st phase in competitive bidding.
The 2nd phase of subscription for the auction will be opened only on the 91-day tenor and the 182-day tenor at the weighted average rates until close of business of the day prior to settlement (i.e., 3.00 pm on 06.03.2025). Given below are the details of the auction;
Meanwhile, the secondary bond market yesterday saw yields initially continue to consolidate, trading within a narrow band on the back of healthy market activity and transaction volumes. The exception continuing to be the 2030 tenors, which saw demand cause rates to edge down further. This characterized the market prior to the release of the T-Bill auction results. Post-announcement saw some very marginal profit taking kick in which caused yields edge up specifically on the 2029 tenors, amidst a moderation in activity. Despite this rest of the yield curve closed broadly steady.
Accordingly, the 15.02.28 maturity was seen trading within the range of 10.00%-10.05%. The 01.07.28 maturity traded within the range of 10.21%-10.18%. The 15.09.29 maturity saw yields edge up from an intraday low of 10.71% to a high of 10.75%. Whereas the yield on the 15.05.30 and 15.10.30 maturities was observed trading down the range of 10.95%-10.90% and 11.00%-10.97% respectively. Trades were witnessed on the 01.10.32 maturity within the range of 11.46%-11.45%.
The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 04th March 2025 was Rs. 14.95 billion.
In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight call money and Repo stood at 7.98% and 8.02% respectively.
The net liquidity surplus stood at Rs. 172.98 billion on Tuesday. Rs. 0.43 billion was withdrawn from the Central Banks SLFR (Standing Lending Facility Rate) of 8.50%, while an amount of Rs. 173.40 billion was deposited at the Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 7.50%.
Forex Market
In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts closed the day depreciating slightly to Rs. 295.30/295.50 as against its previous day’s closing level of Rs. 295.15/295.25.
The total USD/LKR traded volume for 04th March 2025 was US $ 135.36 million.
(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies)