By Dipo Olowookere
The secondary market for treasury bills in Nigeria was relatively flat on Monday, with yields marginally going down by 0.03 percent.
According to analysts at Cowry Asset, this followed the mopping up of surplus liquidity in the money market as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) auctioned wholesale forex to banks.
Business Post reports that apart from the 3-month maturity, which recorded a 0.13 percent rise in yields to settle at 11.31 percent, every other tenor closed negative.
The one-month bill declined by 0.12 percent to finish at 9.96 percent, the 6-month bill went down by 0.05 percent to end at 12.40 percent, while the 12-month instrument depreciated by 0.06 percent to finish at 13.14 percent.
At the close of business yesterday, the average treasury bills yield settled at 11.70 percent.
“We expect rates to remain relatively stable at these levels, as market players look forward to the PMA which would hold upon resumption from the democracy day break,” Cowry Asset said.
Meanwhile, rates in the money market inched higher by 3 percent due to funding for the CBN’s Wholesale FX auction.
The Open Buy Back (OBB) rate consequently increased to 14.50 percent from 11.14 percent, while the Overnight (OVN) rate jumped to 15.29 percent from 12.00 percent.
“We expect rates to trend slightly lower today, as there are no significant outflows anticipated,” Cowry Asset added.
Adedapo Adesanya