Naira rises 0.07% on Nigeria’s import/export FX window as money market upbeat

Trading activities at the Import & Export foreign exchange window of Nigeria currency market saw the naira appreciate by 0.07 percent Thursday to N360.13. But at the parallel market, the naira remained flat exchanging for N363 to the dollar.

At the end of Thursday’s trading, total amount traded in the Import & Export FX window increased by 11.62 percent to $169.16 million, traded within the range of N355 to N361.50.

On the money market, overnight lending rate contracted further by 208 basis points to 6.92 percent, as liquidity position improved following inflow of matured OMO bills worth N89.08 billion.

Activities turned bearish in the NTB market, as average yield expanded by three basis points to 14.49 percent.

Yields closed higher at the mid (+5 basis points) and long (+7 basis points) ends of the curve, while it declined at the short (-3 basis points) segment, following selloffs of the 182DTM (+39 basis points) and 203DTM (+25 basis points) bills, and demand for the 63DTM (-62 basis points) bill respectively.

The downward trend of NIBOR rates persisted across tenors as liquidity level relaxed further. Similarly, the open buy back (OBB) and overnight rates for money closed in the red region by 39.50 percent and 41.29 percent to close at 8.67 percent and 9.00 percent respectively.

Yields on Nigerian treasury bills shed 44bps averagely across all maturities on improved demand on all maturities as CBN issued a no- sale OMO result ahead of treasury bills auction.

Meanwhile, at Wednesday’s NTB auction, N6 billion, N30 billion, and N140 billion of the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day bills were allotted.

The bills were 1.3x oversubscribed, with stop rate on the 91-day bill closing lower at 11.95 percent (previously 12.00 percent), while it was unchanged for the 182-day and 364-day bills at 13.65 percent and 13.70 percent respectively.

Conversely, investors were upbeat in the bond market, as average yield fell by 4 basis points to 13.74 percent.

Yields contracted across all ends of the curve, short (-1 basis point), mid (-2 basis points), and long (-5 basis points) owing to interests in the June N-2019 (-1 basis point), July-2021 (-3 basis points), and March-2036 (-21 basis points) bonds respectively.