Treasury Bills auction up

yesterday adjusted upwards auction sizes for both treasury bills and bonds due to the recent increase in the number of bids pushed in as well as current liquidity.

The auction sizes were adjusted upwards to K1.3 billion from K950 million for Treasury bill auctions while bonds were raised to K1.5 billion from K1.1 billion.

Absa Bank Zambia indicated that the auction frequency remained the same that was once every two weeks for T-Bills and once every month for bonds.

Absa indicated that it expected yields to continue dropping in both the primary and secondary market.

“Market was subdued in Tuesday’s trading session with yields remaining flat. However, we expect an uptick in activity today as the government will be in the market trading on the short end of the curve,” Absa said.

It said volumes of funds traded on the interbank continued to increase moving to K591 million from K415 million with the liquidity levels slightly edging up to K2.9 billion from K2.7 billion.

Meanwhile, the Zambian Kwacha continued on its stable streak, posting additional gains on the back of increased supply from the corporates and the agriculture sector coupled with subdued demand and interbank activity.

Near term, the local unit is anticipated to trade in a tight band with a bias to post slight gains on the back of upcoming tax obligations.

Opening the day at K18.12/18.17 per US dollar, the local unit was up by 7 ngwee to close at K18.05/18.10 on the bid and offer respectively.