Nigeria’s central bank OMO bills worth N244 billion to mature Thursday

Open Market Operations (OMO) bills worth N244 billion are expected to mature into Nigeria’s financial system Thursday.

Proceedings at the Nigerian treasury bills (NTB) market were however mixed Wednesday, albeit with a bullish bias as average yield decreased by 2 bps to 12.71 percent.

The short (-3 bps) and long (-18 bps) ends of the curve recorded yield contractions, while yield expanded at the mid (+10 bps) segment.

Notable bills include the 8DTM (-91 bps), 274DTM (-71 bps), and 99DTM (+56 bps) respectively.

At Wednesday’ NTB auction, N6.22 billion, N50.00 billion, and N126.64 billion of the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day bills were allotted.

The bills were 1.39x oversubscribed, with yields closing higher across the 91-day (10.20%; previously 10.00%), 182-day (10.50%; previously 10.30%), and 364-day (11.50%; previously 11.00%) bills.

Meanwhile the naira remained flat against the dollar at N362 in the parallel market, while it strengthened by 0.06 percent to N361.10 in the investor and exporter window (IEW).

Total turnover transacted in the IEW on Wednesday declined by 16.89 percent to $223.95 million traded within N340.0-362.50/$.

Marketers say the overnight lending rate shed 83 bps to 15.67 percent in the absence of any significant outflows.

At the bonds market, sentiments were mixed as average yield fell marginally (-1 bp) to 13.30 percent.

Yield contracted at the short (-4 bps) end, on the back of demand for the JAN-2020 (-14 bps) bond.

Conversely, yield at the long (+2 bps) segment expanded, following a selloff of the JUL-2034 (+6 bps) bond. Yield at the mid segment was flat.