By Dipo Olowookere
The treasury bills market closed bullish yesterday after trading slightly bearish on Tuesday as a result of heighten political tension in the country.
According to analysts at Zedcrest Research, activities at the market on Wednesday were largely focused on the shorter end of the curve with the longer end relatively quiet due to expectations of an OMO auction by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to counter excess inflows from N452 billion maturing OMO bills today.
At the close of transactions, yields finished lower by 0.10 percent in tune with the relatively buoyant level of liquidity in the system.
Analysts at the investment research firm are forecasting that the market would be scantily traded today, with interests expected to be largely dominated by the expected OMO auction.
“Yields should consequently tick slightly higher on the average,” Zedcrest Research noted.
Meanwhile, the money market rates trended north by a small margin yesterday, though system liquidity marginally dropped to about N230 billion.
This was due to outflows for wholesale foreign exchange settlement in the previous session.
At the close of business yesterday, the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate increased to 7.75 percent from 7.58 percent, while the overnight rate went up to 8.54 percent from 8.42 percent.
However, the rates are expected to slightly drop today with inflows from OMO maturities expected to further bolster system liquidity.
Adedapo Adesanya