T-Bills Market Quiet as CBN Raises N83.2b to Mop up Liquidity

By Dipo Olowookere

The treasury bills market was rather quiet on Thursday, November 09, 2017 as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) continued with the sale of bills via the open market operations (OMO).

Today, the apex bank raised its offer of OMO bills to mop up excess inflows from maturing OMO bills.

At the close of business, the central bank, which had offered to auction bills worth N200 billion, could only sell N83.228 billion worth of bills as investors traded with caution.

A breakdown of the exercise showed that the chief lender sold the 105-day bills worth N238 million at 16 percent stop rate, while the 196-day bills worth N83 billion were sold at 17.80 percent stop rate.

Business Post reports that at the close of business today, the open buy back rate broadly dropped to 7.17 percent from 20.83 percent, while the overnight rate moderated to 7.83 percent from 22.33 percent yesterday.

The decline in the rates was as a result of the N233.76 billion OMO maturity that hit the market today.