Investors Anticipate N216b Maturing Treasury Bills via Secondary Market

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

As a new trading week kicks off on Monday, June 4, 2018 (today), players in the financial market are looking forward for a positive week.

For those at the treasury bills market, they would be anticipating the government’s instrument worth N216.04 billion maturing this week via the secondary market.

This, according to analysts at Cowry Asset, is expected to ease liquidity in the financial system with resultant fall in interbank rates.

Last week, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) auctioned treasury bills worth N785.73 billion comprising N736.13 billion via Open Market Operations (OMO) and N49.60 billion via the Primary Market.

The respective stop rates for the auctioned T-bills moved in different directions: the 91-day stop rate was flat at 10 percent while the 182-day stop rate moderated to 10.30 percent from 10.50 percent.

However, the 364-day stop rate rose to 11 percent from 10.70 percent recorded in the previous session.

In line with its expectation, the aggressive mop up by CBN was partly offset by N192 billion in matured T-bills.

Consequently, NIBOR rose for most tenor buckets amid renewed financial system liquidity strain: NIBOR for 1 month, 3 months and 6 months tenor buckets fell w-o-w to 13.56 percent from 13.48 percent, 15.08 percent from 14.59 percent and 17.09 percent from 15.70 percent respectively.

However, NIBOR for overnight tenor bucket fell to 3.5 percent from 31.88 percent.

Elsewhere, NITTY fell for all maturities tracked amid buy pressure: yields on the 1 month, the 3 months, 6 months and 12 months maturities fell to 10.25 percent from 11.69 percent, 11.54 percent from 12.84 percent, 12.29 percent from 12.97 percent and 12.99 percent from 13.29 percent respectively.