Nigeria overnight rates crash to 3.75% on inflow of N377bn OMO bills maturities
Adesola Afolabi was a businessamlive reporter and Head of Financial desk.
Nigeria overnight lending rates crashed to 3.75 percent Thursday, representing a 1,050 bps contraction, following inflows of open market operation (OMO) bills maturities worth N377.62 billion.
At the currency market, the Nigerian naira remained stable at N362 in the parallel market against the American dollar.
However at the investor and exporter window (IEW), the exchange rate strengthened by 0.01 percent to N361.14, while the total turnover in the IEW increased by 35.29 percent to $341.52 million traded within the N340-N362/$ band.
The apex bank had Wednesday, injected $210 million into the FX market, allocating $100 million to the wholesale window, and $55 million apiece to the SMEs and invisibles segments.
At the NTB secondary market, bearish sentiments were sustained, as average yield rose by 6 bps to 12.74 percent. Selloffs of the 14DTM (+41 bps), 133DTM (+74 bps), and 266DTM (+27 bps) bills led to yield expansion at the short (+2 bps), mid (+14 bps), and long (+1bp) ends of the curve.
Proceedings in the bond market were similarly bearish, as yield expanded by 8 bps on average, to 13.53%. The short (+5 bps), mid (+8 bps), and long (+12 bps) segments experienced sell pressure, with the FEB-2020 (+22bps), JAN-2026 (+21 bps), and JUL-2034 (+25 bps) bonds recording significant expansions, respectively.