By Dipo Olowookere
Treasury bills worth N178.4 billion are expected to be offered for sale to investors on Wednesday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The auction would be conducted by the apex bank via primary market with N5.85 billion worth of the 91-day bills on offer, N26.60 billion worth of the 182-day bills and N145.96 billion worth of the 364-day bills.
According to analysts at Cowry Asset, the treasury bills to be sold by the central bank will partly offset the maturing treasury bills on Thursday worth N608.60 billion.
“We expect stop rates for 91-day and 182-day to remain flat while 364-day stop rate to rise slightly,” the investment firm said in its weekly report.
“Also we feel CBN is poised to mop up, via OMO sales, excess liquidity from FAAC injections that might likely come during the week.
“Nevertheless, we expect ease in the financial system liquidity to be sustained with resultant decline in interbank rates,” it added.
Last week, the CBN auctioned treasury bills worth N315.33 billion via the secondary market; the outflows were partly offset by N313.56 billion in matured T-bills.
However, NIBOR moderated for all tenor buckets amid sustained financial liquidity ease, in line with expectation: NIBOR for overnight, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months tenor buckets declined w-o-w to 9.95 percent from 16.06 percent, 12.84 percent from 13.79 percent, 13.39 percent from 14.76 percent and 14.55 percent from 16.84 percent respectively.
Elsewhere, NITTY rose for most maturities tracked amid renewed bearish activity: yields on the 3 months, 6 months and 12 months maturities rose to 11.81 percent from 11.39 percent, 12.66 percent from 12.65 percent and 13.36 percent from 13.09 percent respectively; however, yields on the 1 month fell to 11.60 percent from 12.07 percent.
