T-Bills Yields Shed 0.05% as Money Market Rates Lose 0.50%

By Dipo Olowookere

On Tuesday, the average treasury bills yields depreciated by 0.07 percent as the market traded positive.

A slight demand by investors was observed at the market yesterday in the absence of an OMO auction by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

According to analysts at Zedcrest Research, yields are expected to remain relatively stable on Wednesday on the back of the robust system liquidity and expected OMO maturities on Thursday.

Market players would however begin to price in anticipated funding for a likely OMO Auction Thursday, and retail FX bids on Friday. This is expected to place slight pressure on yields in the coming days to the weekend.

Meanwhile, the average money market rate depreciated on Tuesday by 0.50 percent to close at 3.75 percent.

The Overnight rate went down to 4 percent from 4.58 percent on Monday, indicating 0.58 percent decline, while the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate fell to 3.50 percent from 3.92 percent, representing 0.42 percent drop.

Business Post reports that the decline at the market rates yesterday occurred as system liquidity remained significantly buoyant at around N400 billion.

“We expect rates to remain stable tomorrow, as there are no significant funding pressures expected. This is however barring an OMO auction sale by the CBN,” analysts at Zedcrest Research said.