The three-month bill saw its yield shoot up 44 basis points to 7.95 percent from 7.51 percent a week ago while the six-month bill saw its yield shoot up 64 basis points to 8.18 percent from 7.54 percent a week earlier. The 12-month bill saw its rate reach 8.50 percent, up 91 basis points from 7.59 percent two weeks ago.
The Central Bank had reissued maturing Treasury bills amounting to Rs. 10 bills. Bids amounted to Rs. 13.4 billion of which only Rs. 8 billion was accepted.
"There is some panic among small investors in the bond market due to the overnight depreciation of the rupee, but this is only natural in a market. The large investors are still holding there positions and the market would stabilise by the end of this week," a dealer said.
The bond market liquidity has dried up with no quotes for maturing bonds and dealers said sellers were offering high yields.
Dealers said the rupee depreciated further on Wednesday, trading at Rs. 114.20 to a dollar at one stage. But Central Bank intervention brought the exchange rate back to the previous day’s close of Rs. 113.88/90.
They said the Central Bank depreciated the rupee by 30 cents in the morning issuing a trading band of 113.60/114.20 before readjusting it to 113.50/90.
Dealers said there was uncertainty in both the foreign exchange and money markets.
The weighted average call market rate shot up 11 basis points to 8.19 percent while the market repo rate shot up 19 basis points to 7.50 percent.http://island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=39666