By Modupe Gbadeyanka
On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will on behalf of the Debt Management Office (DMO) auction treasury bill worth N72.3 billion to investors through the primary market.
The bills would be sold to both local and offshore retail and institutional investors across two maturities, but analysts are of the opinion that the stop rates would marginally decline.
According to the calendar released by the apex bank, N1.80 billion worth of the 91-day bill would be auctioned, while N70.50 billion worth 364-day bill would be offered for subscription.
According to analysts at Cowry Asset, the N72 billion worth of treasury bills to be sold at the PMA should be soaked by the N127.04 billion worth of maturing bills at both the primary and secondary markets during the week. Consequently, there should be an ease in liquidity in the financial system.
Last week, the CBN sold OMO bills worth N110.51 billion to partly mop up OMO repayments worth N323.26 billion. Additional N16.72 billion was sold via repo agreements.
Hence, due to the net inflows, NIBOR declined for overnight funds, to 12.19 percent from 16.56 percent, while it increased for other tenor buckets like the one month, 3 months and 6 months tenor buckets to 9.95 percent from 6.69 percent, 10.08 percent from 6.63 percent and 10.80 percent from 6.96 percent respectively.
Elsewhere, NITTY moved in mixed directions across maturities tracked as yields on 1 month and 12 months maturities moderated to 3.06 percent from 3.13 percent and 5.22 percent from 5.25 percent respectively.
However, yields on 3 months and 6 months maturities rose to 3.41 percent from 3.04 percent and 3.75 percent from 3.45 percent respectively.
Adedapo Adesanya