Money Market Rates Fall as T-Bills Market Trades Slightly Bullish

By Dipo Olowookere

The money market rates depreciated marginally on Tuesday as there were no significant funding pressures in the system.

Specifically, the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate went down to 19.33 percent from 30 percent in the previous session, while the Overnight (OVN) rate crashed to 20.08 percent from 32.50 percent on Monday.

According to analysts at Zedcrest Research, system liquidity is estimated to have closed yesterday at about N80 billion positive following estimated deductions of about N70 billion for wholesale forex sales funded in the previous session.

The rates are expected to maintain a slightly downward trend as market players anticipated inflows from FAAC and OMO maturities to further ease funding pressures in the system.

Meanwhile, the treasury bills market traded on a slightly bullish note yesterday with yields compressing by 0.10 percent.

This followed some demands mostly on the 4-Oct, 3-Jan and 14-Feb benchmark T-bills maturities in anticipation of OMO and PMA maturities on Thursday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will conduct a PMA today with a total of N171 billion on offer.

“We expect the rates to clear slightly higher (0.10 percent) than previous levels due to the increased volumes on offer,” Zedcrest Research analysts said.