Treasury Bill Rate Steady at 6.14% as Naira Depreciates

Treasury Bill Rate Steady at 6.14% as Naira Depreciates

Treasury bill rate steady at 6.14% Wednesday as Nigerian local currency, Naira, depreciates by 0.1% to N412 per dollar at the Investors and Exporters Window. In the money market today, funding rates, Open Buy Back (OBB), and Overnight (O/N) rates closed higher by 1.00% points and 1.08% points to 16.00% and 16.25% respectively.

Fixed income analysts at Chapel Hill Denham said in a report that a higher volume of activity in the Standing Lending Financing (SLF) and REPO windows culminated in the pent-up funding rates.

In the fixed income space, trading activity was mostly bullish despite a quiet trading session across some segments of the market. The Nigerian Treasury Bill benchmark curve closed flat at 6.14% as investors focused on the Primary Market Auction (PMA) in place of secondary T-Bills.

The open market operations (OMO) benchmark curve compressed marginally by a basis point to 9.25% mostly influenced by bullish sentiments on the long end of the OMO curve.

In the secondary bond space, the benchmark curve also compressed by 4 basis points to 13.00% today.

Decomposing the performance, the long end of the curve dipped by 9 basis points and the intermediate end by a basis point. Overall, the biggest decline in yields today is ignited by the Jul-45 and Apr-49 maturities.

The Naira depreciated by in the Investors and Exporters window today. Naira sheds 49 basis points and 42 basis points on a month-to-date and year-to-date basis respectively.

However, at the parallel market, the Naira gained 0.6% or N3 as external reserves declined further to N33.97 billion from N34.00 billion.

Treasury Bill Rate Steady at 6.14% as Naira Depreciates