The banking system liquidity which stood at about N731.8 billion last week Friday is expected to further rise to about N862.7 billion following anticipated maturing Open Market Operation (OMO) bills worth N130.9 billion.
Barring any Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) debit and substantial OMO sales by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited expect the robust system liquidity to boost demand further as investors seek to re-invest maturing funds amidst limited money market investment options.
“We anticipate more blue-chip companies would issue commercial papers due to the persistent low interest rate environment,” the analysts said.
Meanwhile, Dangote Cement PLC is seeking to raise up to N100.0bn 5-year Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Bonds, under its N300.0bn debt issuance programme.
The CBN conducted an OMO auction on Thursday, offering a total of N110.0bn across the 75-, 166- and 348-Day instruments. Similar to previous OMO auctions, investors interest remained lackluster as the short and medium term bills did not receive any subscription while the long term bill was grossly undersubscribed by 0.2x. Nevertheless, the CBN allotted only N4.0bn out of the N21.0bn subscription as stop rate cleared lower at 12.8% (vs.13.0% at the previous auction).
Hope Moses-Ashike
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