T-Bills Market Quiet as CBN Resumes OMO Auction, Mops up N116b

By Dipo Olowookere

Trading activities resumed at the treasury bills market on Monday, but the session was relatively quiet.

This was as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) resumed its usual sales of the instruments via the Open Market Operations (OMO) after it did not conduct any last Friday.

At Monday’s OMO auction, the apex bank raised N115.75 billion from the sale of T-bills at the market.

A breakdown showed that the nation’s chief lender sold N20.01 billion worth of the 98-day bill at 12.60 percent, while it raised N95.74 billion from the sale of the 266-day bill at 14.40 percent stop rate.

While the 98-day bill was undersubscribed (N40 billion offered for sale), the 266-day bill was oversubscribed by market players (N70 billion worth of the instrument was offered to investors).

The market is expected to trade flat today as the central bank conducts another OMO sales.

Meanwhile, the money market rates rose on Monday as a result of debits for the OMO and wholesale FX sales by the CBN.

While the overnight interbank lending rate increased to 19.33 percent from 12.17 percent, the open buy back (OBB) rate rose to 18.40 percent from 11.60 percent in the last trading session.