T-Bills Yields Surge by 0.15% as Market Remains Slightly Bearish

By Dipo Olowookere

The treasury bills market remained slightly bearish on Tuesday with yields rising by 0.15 percent on the average, analysts at Zedcrest Research have said in their daily market report.

This appreciation followed the slight squeeze in system liquidity and some profit taking by market players in anticipation of an Open Market Operations (OMO) on Thursday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

On Monday, the T-bills market was scantily traded with slight sell witnessed on the shorter end of the curve, following outflows for wholesale forex interventions by the CBN.

However, the yields are expected to further grow on Wednesday (today) as market players look to refresh their positions at the auction.

Meanwhile, the money market rates depreciated marginally on Tuesday with both the Open Buy Back (OBB) and Overnight rates going down at the close of transactions.

Business Post reports that the OBB rate went down to 6 percent yesterday from 7.58 percent in the previous session, while the overnight rate dropped to 6.60 percent from 8.17 percent in the last session.

The drop recorded by the money market rates was caused by lack of significant funding pressures at the market yesterday.

However, the rates are expected to further trend downwards today in anticipation of inflows from OMO maturities tomorrow as well as retail forex refunds to banks.