Traders Anticipate Maturing N149b T-Bills This Week

By Dipo Olowookere

It is a new year and the first trading session in the treasury bills market is expected to kick off with traders upbeat that a huge positive turnaround will occur this year.

But as the market commences, investors in government securities, especially T-bills, are anticipating some maturing bills this week.

Business Post gathered that during the week, treasury bills worth N148.86 billion will mature via primary market.

This, our correspondent learned, is expected to result into a boost in financial system liquidity with resultant decline in interbank lending rates.

According to analysts at Cowry Asset, last week, the interbank lending rates decreased across all tenure buckets amid ease in the financial system liquidity.

Particularly, treasury bills worth N218.22 billion matured via Open Market Operations (OMO).

Consequently, NIBOR for Overnight, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months tenor buckets fell w-o-w to 5 percent from 6.08 percent, 13.51 percent from 15.26 percent, 15.39 percent from 16.41 percent and 17.19 percent from 18.06 percent respectively.

Elsewhere, NIITY also moderated for most maturities tracked following renewed buy pressure: yields on the 1 month, 6 months and 12 months maturities fell to 10.24 percent from 11.31 percent, 14.82 percent from 15.20 percent and 16.32 percent from 16.41 percent respectively.

However, yields on the 3 months rose to 12.93 percent from 12.89 percent.