By Dipo Olowookere
The treasury bills market remained marginally bearish on Friday with slight selloff witnessed on some short tenured maturities.
As a result, yields trended higher at the close of market, with the 1-month yields closing at 14.91 percent, 3-month yields at 11.31 percent, the 6-month yields at 14.63 percent and the 12-month yields at 17.32 percent.
Analysts at Zedcrest Research, “With system liquidity still in negative territory, we expect yields to remain elevated in the coming week, with the CBN expected to maintain its aggressive OMO stance in view of the N560 billion in OMO maturities.”
Meanwhile, the average rates in the money market moderated further by 2.42 percent to settle at 21.25 percent.
This came on the back of decline recorded by the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate, which closed at 20.00 percent from 22.67 percent, and the Overnight (OVN) rate, which crashed to 22.50 percent from 24.67 percent.
It was observed that the moderation in the money market rates occurred on the absence of an OMO sale by the central bank yesterday. The rates are expected to trend slightly higher opening next week, with the banks expected to fund for a wholesale FX intervention by the apex bank.
