Government securities under-subscribed by 49.61% at last auction

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7 years ago

INDICATIONS emerged at the close of last week trading that low activities in the market led to under-subscription at the last auctioning of treasury bills for 2017, at the Open Market Operations (OMO) conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The bank could only sell 49.61 percent of what it offered to traders at the market.

Nigerian Tribune reports that the central bank had put up N200 billion worth of bills for auctioning, but it eventually sold N99.22 billion worth of the government security.

Dealers observed that the market was relatively quiet like it had been this festive period.

At the close of the market on Friday, the apex bank sold N10.84 billion worth of the 90-day bill at 12.80 percent stop rate, while the 279-day bill worth N88.38 billion was sold by the apex bank at 14.60 percent.

Themarket is expected to resume this year on Wednesday, January 3.

Meanwhile, Nigeria plans to sell N1.27 trillion worth of treasury bills in five auctions in the first quarter (Q1) of 2018, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Treasury Bills Issuance Calendar posted on the bank’s website.

Specifically, the CBN would offer N87.71 billion in the three-month paper, N244.27 billion in the six-month bill and N933.61 billion in a one-year note.