Calm trading across bonds, T-bills markets as Naira flat @ N521/$ in street

It was all calm in the currency market on Thursday, that despite the continued scarcity of the greenback, the Naira closed at N521 to a dollar in the street market as in the previous day’s close. Meanwhile, at the Investors and Exporters’ FX market, the Naira appreciated by 0.27 percent as the dollar was quoted at N410.88 as against the last close of N412 as most participants maintained bids of between N400 and N413 per dollar.

At the FMDQ OTC market, the Overnight (O/N) rate decreased by 3.33 percent to close at 10 percent as against the last close of 13.33 percent, and the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate decreased by 3 percent to close at 10 percent compared to 13 percent on the previous day.

Also, the Nigerian Treasury bills secondary market closed on a flat note with the average yield across the curve remaining unchanged at 4.95 percent. Average yields across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities closed flat at 3.47 percent, 4.43 percent and 6.24 percent, respectively.

At the scheduled primary market auction held by the CBN on Wednesday to sell Nigerian treasury bills worth N307.34 billion across the 91-day (N3.54 billion), 182-day (N22.86 billion), and 364-day (N280.94 billion) tenors, the stop rates for the 91-day and 182-day remained unchanged at 2.50 percent and 3.50 percent, respectively. However, the stop rate for the 364-day tenor cleared lower at 6.80 percent (-55 basis points). The auction was oversubscribed by 151 percent, with bid-to-cover ratios settling at 1.55x (91-day), 0.74x (182-day), and 3.01x (364-day).

Deeper into the OMO bills market, the average yield across the curve increased by 5 basis points to close at 6.04 percent as against the last close of 5.99 percent. Selling pressure was seen across the short-term and medium-term maturities with the average yields expanding 11 basis points and 2 basis points, respectively. However, the average yield across the long-term maturities remained unchanged at 6.68 percent. Yields on 15 bills advanced with the 7-Sep-21 maturity bill recording the highest yield increase of 15 basis points, while yields on 6 bills remained unchanged.

The FGN bonds secondary market closed on a flat note as the average bond yield across the curve remained unchanged at 8.38 percent. The average yield across the short tenor of the curve decreased by 3 basis points.

However, the average yields across medium tenor and long tenor of the curve increased by 9 basis points and 7 basis points, respectively.

The 27-APR-2023 maturity bond was the best performer with a decline in yield of 10 basis points, while the 27-MAR-2035 maturity bond was the worst performer with an increase in yield of 20 basis points.