- Treasury bill weighted averages decrease for a fifth consecutive week
- Bond yields continue to head south
The declining trend in the weekly Treasury bill weighted average yields continued for a fifth consecutive week with the 91 day bill recording the steepest drop of 18 basis points to 7.05% followed by the 182 day bill recording a decline of 13 basis points to 7.84%. The 364 day bill dipped by a mere 1 basis point to 8.11%. The total offered amount at the auction was fully accepted for an eight consecutive week while the 182 day bill represented 47.97% of this volume, indicating continued market appetite for this maturity. The bid to offer ratio stood at 2.26: 1. Given below are the details of the auction,
Yields in the secondary bond market decreased further yesterday, consisting of the liquid maturities of 01.12.24, 15.03.25, 15.01.26, 15.01.27 and 15.05.30 to lows of 8.90%, 9.31%, 9.70%, 10.06% and 11.08% respectively against its previous day’s closing levels of 8.93/96, 9.35/40, 9.75/85, 10.09/12 and 11.15/23.
The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 07th December 2021 was Rs.3.6 billion.
In money markets, the net liquidity deficit decreased to Rs.237.81 billion yesterday as an amount of Rs.79.37 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 5.00% against an amount of Rs.369.18 billion withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 6.00%. The Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was seen draining out amounts of Rs.37.00 billion and Rs.15.00 billion by way of overnight and 7 day repo auctions at weighted average rates of 5.99% each. The weighted average rates on overnight Call money and REPO remained steady at 5.92% and 5.97% respectively.
USD/LKR
In the Forex market, the USD/LKR rate on spot contracts traded at a level of Rs.203.00 while the overall market remained inactive yesterday.
The total USD/LKR traded volume for 07th December 2021 was US $ 39.25 million.
(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies)