Traders Buy 198-Day Bills worth N18.20b at 17.80%

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Treasury bills market was dull yesterday as traders continue to tread cautiously, observing how the various economic parameters affect the market.

On Tuesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) after its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, announced that it was retaining the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 14 percent.

It was gathered that the average T-bill yields declined by 14 basis points to 17.84 percent at the close of business on Tuesday.

Business Post reports that yesterday, the apex managed to realise N18.20 billion from the sale of 198-day treasury bill at 17.80 percent via the open market operations (OMO).

Investors snubbed the 93-day instrument as no bid was received by the central bank from traders despite offering to N20 billion worth of the bill to them.

Also, the overnight rate dropped yesterday to 31.83 percent from 41.67 percent the previous day, while the open buy back (OBB) rate declined to 29.17 percent from 38.33 percent.