Average T-Bills yield declines to 8.7% week on week, Afrinvest, a leading independent investment banking firm (www.afrinvest.com) revealed in a recent release.
The firm noted that activities in the Nigerian Treasury Bills secondary market kick started on a tepid note as local investors digested the release of inflation data which surged 37 basis points to 11.6% last week.
The investment banking firm in its weekly review reckoned that T-Bills demand picked up steam towards the end of the week as average yield across the curve was further pressured by 2.3% W-o-W to close at 8.7% from 10.9% the previous week.
The short-term bills witnessed continued buying interest thus dipping, 2.0% week on week from 10.5% in the previous week to 8.6% last week.
In the same vein, the medium- and long- term bills experienced higher demand declining 2.3% W-o-W apiece.
Analysts in the review stated that despite the high liquidity level on Thursday (N411.9bn long) in the financial system, the Apex bank did not conduct an Open Market Operation auction throughout last week, leaving system liquidity elevated (N548.3 billion positive) as at Friday.
Afrinvest stated that moving on to the new week, the analysts expect a quiet session ahead of the Primary Market Auction on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, T-Bills maturities worth N150.6 billion will be rolled over and issued across the 91-day (N24.4 billion), 182-day (N23.2 billion) and 364-day (N103.1 billion).
“We also cannot rule out the possibility that investors continue to source for more risky, higher yielding investments, thus tapering current demand”, Afrinvest stated.
Analysts advise investors to cherry-pick the most attractive T-Bills instruments in the first trading sessions as, more attractive short-term sovereign bonds serves as an alternative for investors with longer time horizons.
