At the Wednesday’s Primary Market Auction, (PMA) the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) fully allotted N14.61 billion worth of Treasury Bills.. The bills were allotted in the categories of N2.0 billion of the 91-day, N2.0 billion of the 182-day and NGN10.61 billion of the 364-day, at stop rates of 1.80 per cent (previously 2.00%), 2.04% previously 2.20%), and 3.75%, previously 4.02% respectively.
Meanwhile, the Naira closed flat at the Investment and Export (I&E) window and the parallel market at NGN386.00/USD and NGN452.00/USD, respectively. The stagnation was against the trend recorded on Monday as the naira strengthened at the I&E window by 0.1% to NGN386.00/USD, while it weakened by 0.4 per cent to NGN452.00/USD at the parallel market.
In the money market & fixed income markets, the overnight lending rate (OVN) midweek expanded by 184bps to 8.9 per cent, in the absence of significant inflows into the system.
The Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTB) secondary market traded on a mixed note, as average yield closed flat at 3.4 per cent.
The trend was as market participants shifted their focus to midweek’s Primary Market Auction (PMA).
Trading in Treasury bond secondary market was mixed, albeit with a bullish bias, as average yield pared by 3bps to 9.9%.
Across the benchmark curve, yields contracted at the short (-10bps) end, as investors demanded the MAR-2025 bond which weakened by -55bps, while they expanded slightly at the long segment by +1bp due to sell-off of the MAR-2036 bond that expanded by 8bps. The mid-segment instrument traded flat. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the overnight lending rate expanded by 16bps to 7.1%, in the absence of significant inflows into the system.
The NTB secondary market traded on a mixed note, as average yield closed flat at 3.4%. This is as market participants shifted their focus to tomorrow’s NTB PMA. Elsewhere, the average yield in the OMO secondary market pared by 3bps to 4.9%.
