By Dipo Olowookere
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday carried out the sale of treasury bills via Open Market Operations (OMO).
During the exercise, the apex bank raised N362.95 billion from the N600 billion worth of the government instrument it offered to investors.
Business Post reports that from the N200 billion worth of the 91-day bills, the central bank sold N58.95 billion at 11.05 percent, while it realised N304 billion from the N400 billion worth of the 203-day bills sold at 12.15 percent.
At the close of transactions yesterday, the T-bills market traded negative with average yields rising by 0.22 percent to finish at 12.01 percent.
However, the yields are expected to close the week on a relatively stable note with the surplus system liquidity expected to be moderated by expected debits for Retail FX provisioning by banks.
A further OMO auction sale by the CBN could however tighten system liquidity and cause yields to tick higher, analysts at Zedcrest Research said.
Meanwhile, the money market rates increased on Thursday by 0.46 percent to settle at 3.79 percent.
While the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate jumped to 3.33 percent from 2.92 percent, the Overnight (OVN) rate went up to 4.25 percent from 3.75 percent.
The growth recorded by the money market rates came on the back of the N363 billion OMO T-bill sale by the CBN to mop up excess inflows of N379 billion from OMO T-bill maturities.
System liquidity however remained significantly buoyant at N520 billion as the CBN SLF hit a record zero patronage level.
The rates are expected to inch slightly higher on Friday as a result of the anticipated provisioning for retail FX purchase by banks.