- Nigeria’s Fixed Income and Currency (FIC) markets transactions grew to N13.42trillion last month, a remarkable 10.50percent or N1.27trillion increase when compared to N12.15trillion in the preceding month, FMDQ OTC Monthly shows.
The report, which is an analytical summary of the trading activities as recorded in the various segments of the Nigerian OTC markets: Foreign Exchange (FX), Treasury Bills (T-Bills), Bonds and Money Market (Secured and Unsecured Placements & Takings) over the course of a given month.
The FMDQ trading activities summary shows the Fixed Income and Currency market turnover was N8.58trillion as at March 2016, indicating 56.4percent or N4.84trillion growth within one year.
The OTC market surveillance shows that number of executed trades captured on the E-Bond trading platform for the month of March 2017 amounted to 24,047 as against 22,345 recorded in February. As at March 2016, the number of executed trades stood at 15,738.
The Treasury Bills (T-Bills) segment continued to dominate the FIC market, accounting for 49.51percent, a decline from 52.20percent in February, while FGN Bonds accounted for 8.01 percent of the total turnover value, a decline from 9.01percent in February.
Activities in the Foreign Exchange (FX) market accounted for 22.91percent, an increase when compared to 16.47 percent in February, while Money Market (Repurchase Agreements (Repos)/Buy-Backs and Unsecured Placements/Takings accounted for 19.42percent of the turnover, a decline from 22.19percent in February.
Transactions in the FX market settled at $9.72bn in March, an increase of 50.59percent ($3.27billion) when compared with the value recorded in February ($6.46bn). FX market transactions stood at $6.56billion as at March 2016.
“This increase was largely due to increased supply of FX into the market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The CBN sold a total of $1.24billion through various interventions conducted during the period under review,” FMDQ noted in the OTC Monthly.
As part of its mandate to provide exceptional levels of information transparency, FMDQ provides continuous disclosure of relevant information on fixed income issues listed on its platform. Such information include – issue size, tenor, issue and maturity date, coupon, yield, issuer ratings, shelf prospectus, pricing supplement and issuer issue history.
Turnover in the Fixed Income market in the month under review settled at N7.72trillion, an indication of 3.70percent or N290billion above the preceding month’s value. This shows remarkable growth from N4.13trillion in March 2016.
From N6.24trillion in March 2016, the value of outstanding FGN Bonds increased to close N7.19trilion in the review period of March 2017.
Nigeria’s outstanding T.Bills which stood at N5.41trillion as at March 2016 grew to close last month at N8.79trillion. It also increased by 0.81percent month-on-month (MoM) from February 2017 level of N8.72trillion.
Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs) are short-term Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) debt instruments maturing in one year or less, sold at a discount and redeemed at par. Secondary market liquidity is enhanced for the NTBs by the FMDQ Dealing Members who trade the instruments daily.
IHEANYI NWACHUKWU
