Sri Lanka's public debt management office sold an additional 14 billion rupees in Treasury bills this week, bringing total sales to 154 billion rupees, while bond yields showed a mixed trend with most longer-dated instruments declining slightly.
Sri Lanka's debt management authorities have completed a substantial week of Treasury bill issuance, with the public debt management office selling 14 billion rupees in bills offered on tap following an initial auction on Tuesday. According to the debt office, the three-month bills were sold at an average rate of 9.86 percent, while six-month and twelve-month bills fetched rates of 10.21 percent and 10.20 percent respectively. Combined with Tuesday's initial sale of 140 billion rupees across the same three tenors, this week's total Treasury bill sales reached 154 billion rupees against total market subscription of 41.324 billion rupees.
Movement in the secondary bond market showed a generally softer trend during the week. The rupee strengthened marginally, closing at 336.00/10 to the US dollar on Thursday compared to 336.10/20 on Tuesday. Most medium to long-dated government bonds recorded yield declines, with securities maturing in October 2028, October 2030, January 2033, and June 2034 all trading lower. However, the longer-dated bond maturing in July 2037 bucked the trend, trading up from the previous session's levels.
On the equity market front, the Colombo Stock Exchange closed with modest losses on Thursday. The benchmark All Share Price Index declined 0.38 percent to 21,148.71 points, while the more liquid S&P SL20 index fell 0.33 percent. Capital goods sector led trading activity with 389 million rupees in turnover out of a total market turnover of 1.094 billion rupees. Positive performers included Carson Cumberbatch, Sampath Bank, and Sarvodaya Development Finance, while Aitken Spence, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, and ACL Cables led declines.
