Rates to inch higher despite expected N265.5bn inflow

THERE are high expectations that money market rates will inch slightly higher on Monday (today), despite a N265.5 billion open market operations (OMO) inflow. This is because of expected outflows for wholesale Foreign Exchange (FX) sales by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

According to dealers, N265.5 billion of OMO instruments will mature on May 10, 2018.

“We expect the market to remain scantily traded on most maturities, as system liquidity is expected to tighten slightly ahead of expected inflows from OMO maturities and FX refunds later in the week,” one dealer said.

The Open Buy Back (OBB) and Overnight (OVN), rates declined slightly by 200 basis points (bps) to 2.83 per cent and 3.33 per cent respectively.

This according to dealers was so as there were no significant funding pressures in the market.

The Treasury Bills market witnessed slight retracements following the OMO auction announcement by the CBN with a relatively significant amount of N500 billion on offer.

The CBN eventually sold N600 billion of the 105 and 245-day bills at 11.00per cent and 12.10per cent respectively, with subscription on the latter prorated by 50 per cent.

This consequently pushed yields higher especially on the August and November maturities.

Most dealers expect the market to remain slightly bullish, due to pent up demand for treasury bills in the market.