Bond market at a complete standstill
The new trading week commenced on a dull note as activity in the secondary bond market was at a complete standstill yesterday with a majority of market participants opting to be on the sidelines.
Meanwhile, the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) for the month of July increased to 6.8% on the basis of its point to point against its previous month 6.1% while its annual average remained steady at 5.4%.
The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 20th of August 2021 was Rs.0.17 billion.
In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight call money and repo remained mostly unchanged at 5.77% and 5.75% respectively as the overnight net liquidity surplus increased to Rs.14.62 billion yesterday. An amount of Rs.115.55 was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit facility Rate) of 5.00% against an amount of Rs.100.94 billion been withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Lending facility Rate) of 6.00%.
USD/LKR
In Forex markets, the overall market continued to remain inactive yesterday.
The total USD/LKR traded volume for 20th August 2021 was US $ 45.80 million.
(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies)