CBN Further Trims Rates at PMA as Investors Scramble for T-Bills

By Dipo Olowookere

The appetite for high yielding investment saw investors scrambling for treasury bills at the primary market auction conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday.

It was the last sale of fresh treasury bills by the apex bank for the month of May 2019 and the exercise was oversubscribed by N128.16 billion.

However, the rush for the debt instrument saw a further slash in the rates, especially on the mid and long-tenors.

Business Post reports that the CBN left the rate on the short-dated bill unchanged at its previous level.

Treasury bills worth N67.37 billion were offered for sale by the central bank today, but subscriptions valued at N195.53 billion were received from market players.

During today’s exercise, N24.37 billion worth of the 91-day bills were auctioned, but subscriptions worth N24.45 billion were received with the amount offered eventually allotted at 10 percent.

For the 182-day instrument, the bank auctioned N23.16 billion, with offers valued at N51.23 billion received and the amount offered allotted at 11.95 percent.

Business Post reports that N19.84 billion worth of 364-day bills were put up for sale today by the CBN, but subscriptions valued at N119.85 billion received from investors, with the amount auctioned allotted at 12.20 percent.

Business Post observed that the central bank reduced the stop rate for the 182-day instrument to 11.95 percent from 12.30 percent, while rate of the 364-day bills was cut to 12.20 percent from 12.49 percent.

Meanwhile, the average money market rate depreciated on Thursday by 6.54 percent to finish at 6.18 percent at the close of business.

This followed the 6.93 percent decline recorded by the Overnight (OVN) rate and the 6.14 percent drop posted by the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate.

While the OVN rate went down to 6.50 percent from 13.43 percent, the OBB rate fell to 5.86 percent from 12.00 percent.