By Dipo Olowookere
Last Thursday, treasury bills worth N263.37 billion matured through both the primary and second markets.
But this week, investors would anticipate T-bills worth N226.68 billion maturing at the secondary market.
This, according to analysts at Cowry Asset, is expected bring about a sustained ease in financial system liquidity with accompanying moderation in interbank rate.
It was learnt that last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) auctioned treasury bills worth N58.50 billion via the primary market; viz: 91-day bills worth N5.85 billion, 182-day bills worth N29.25 billion and 364-day bills worth N23.40 billion.
However, their respectively spot rates fell to 10.90 percent from 11.75 percent, 12 percent from 12.70 percent and 12.08 percent from 13.04 percent.
Also, T-Bills worth N500 billion were sold via Open Market Operations (OMO) and the outflows were partly offset by inflows worth N263.37 billion in matured treasury bill.
Meanwhile, Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) which fell w-o-w by 3.85 percent to N722.25 billion, outweighed Standing Lending Facility (SLF) which rose w-o-w by 10.63 percent to N292.24 billion; indicative of excess financial system liquidity.
Hence, NIBOR fell for most tenor buckets on sustained liquidity ease in the financial system –in line with expectation: NIBOR for 1 month, 3 months and 6 months tenor buckets fell w-o-w to 11.31 percent from 13.43 percent, 12.57 percent from 14.17 percent and 13.56 percent from 15.35 percent respectively; while NIBOR for overnight tenor bucket rose to 3.38 percent from 3 percent.
Elsewhere, NITTY fell for all maturities tracked on sustained bullish activity: yields on the 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months maturities fell to 8.16 percent from 12.52 percent, 10.01 percent from 13.02 percent, 11.15 percent from 13.65 percent and 12.90 percent from 14.72 percent respectively.
