T-Bills Market Trades Bullish as Money Market Rates Stay Stable

By Dipo Olowookere

The treasury bills market traded bullish on Monday as market player prepare for the primary market auction slated for tomorrow.

During the exercise to be conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), a total of the government securities worth N58 billion would be offered to investors.

At the market yesterday, analysts at Zedcrest Research said there was an aggressive yield declines, about 1.35 percent observed on the short to medium end of the curve.

This was attributed to backdrop of the significant amount of liquidity in the system following the recent slowdown in OMO auction sales by the CBN.

However, this trend is expected to persist ahead of the OMO auction scheduled for Thursday.

Meanwhile, the money market rates remained stable on Monday as system liquidity stayed significantly buoyant, currently estimated at about N610 billion from N680 billion opening yesterday.

The estimated decline in liquidity is attributed to FX interventions by the CBN to the tune of $210 million in the wholesale, SME and invisibles segments of the market.

Business Post reports that the open buy back (OBB) rate remained unchanged on Monday at 2.33 percent, while the overnight rate slightly increased to 3 percent from 2.92 percent last trading session.

However, analysts at Zedcrest expect the rates to remain stable today as there are no significant funding pressures anticipated in the market.