By Dipo Olowookere
The treasury bills market remained slightly bearish on Friday as a result of the significant Open Market Operations (OMO) sale on Thursday.
During the previous day’s session, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mopped up about N1 trillion from the system through the OMO auction.
The apex bank had sold to market players N25.87 billion worth of the 91-day bill, N91.49 billion worth of the 196-day bill, N262.26 billion worth of the 364-day billion, and N645.58 billion worth of the special 364-day bill, all at the previous stop rates.
At the market today, weaknesses were observed on the short tenors (Jan – Apr), which rose by 1.20 percent as investors sought to bolster their year-end cash positions.
“We anticipate a relatively quiet trading session tomorrow, as market players wind up activities for the year,” Zedcrest Research said.
Meanwhile, the average money market rates increased on Friday by 5 percent with the Open Buy Back (OBB) and Overnight (OVN) rates closing the day at 17.17 percent and 18.42 percent respectively.
This was as the central bank debited banks for the special OMO auction of N645 billion conducted at the yesterday.
“We consequently estimate system liquidity to drop to a repo of N290 billion from a positive opening level of N355 billion. “We expect rates to remain elevated due to the relatively tighter level of system liquidity and possibility for a wholesale FX intervention by the CBN on Monday,” the Lagos-based investment firm said in its daily report.
