T-Bills Yields Drop to 9.97% on Absence of OMO Auction

By Dipo Olowookere

The average treasury bills yields marginally depreciated on Wednesday by 0.08 percent to finish at 9.97 percent, Business Post is reporting.

This came on the back of the absence of an Open Market Operations (OMO) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday.

It was observed that the significantly robust system liquidity levels triggered some renewed demand interests mostly on the mid to long end of the curve.

Apart from the 6-month instrument, which rose by 0.12 percent to end at 13.56 percent, every other maturity depreciated yesterday.

The one-month bill declined by 0.19 percent to close at 10.07 percent, the three-month instrument also fell by 0.19 percent to settle at 11.87 percent, whie the 12-month bill went down by 0.11 percent to finish at 14.33 percent.

According to analysts at Cowry Asset, “We expect that the CBN conduct an OMO auction on Thursday, given expected inflows from OMO T-bill maturities worth N152 billion and retail FX refunds.”

“In the absence of this however, the market would remain slightly bullish,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Open Buy Back (OBB) and Overnight rates declined further by nearly 4 percent as system liquidity remained significantly robust at N310 billion in absence of a CBN OMO auction.

The OBB and OVN rates consequently ended the session at 6.00 percent and 6.64 percent.

“Rates are expected to decline further on Friday, barring a significant OMO sale by the CBN,” Cowry Asset said.