Sri Lanka’s Public Debt Management Office sold an additional Rs 8,440 million (Rs 8.44 billion) of treasury bills on tap, taking the total raised this week to Rs 108,440 million (Rs 108.44 billion), EconomyNext reported.
The tap was filled across all three tenors at the same average rates set at Wednesday’s primary auction. The three-month bill went at 8.20 percent, the six-month at 8.24 percent and the 12-month at 8.52 percent. Total market subscription matched the offered Rs 8,440 million, the debt office said.
The settlement date for the tap is 8 May, EconomyNext said.
The tap follows Wednesday’s primary auction at which the debt office accepted Rs 100 billion against an offered Rs 140 billion across the same maturities — a partial undersubscription that has been a recurring feature of recent auctions as bidders weigh inflation, exchange-rate stability and fiscal pressures from the Treasury cyber-theft incident and overseas debt servicing.
Tap sales allow primary dealers to pick up bills at the prevailing weighted-average auction rate after the cut-off, giving the government a second window to fill its weekly borrowing target without re-running the auction. The Rs 108 billion-plus weekly haul is consistent with the government’s heavier borrowing calendar during the post-restructuring debt-management cycle, which has seen the PDMO win a Commonwealth award for its sovereign debt operations.
Sri Lanka’s rupee weakened to 321.70/85 against the US dollar on Thursday from 321.00/30 the previous day, while bond yields fell across the curve, EconomyNext said. The benchmark CSE All Share Index closed near the 23,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday.
