Naira yesterday maintained stability against the dollar at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange and parallel market, closing at N210/$ and N212/$, respectively, BusinessDay findings have revealed.
However, it depreciated in value against the dollar at the inter-bank market by N0.72k or 0.36 percent, closing at N198.35/$ compared with N197.63/$, according to data from FMDQ.
Yvonne Mhango, Renaissance Capital’s sub-Saharan Africa Economist, highlights the need for Nigeria to adjust the currency downwards, saying she believes the naira is around 20 percent overvalued and ought to trade at around N240/$.
Meanwhile, market liquidity pegged at 15.33, following the settlement payment of N62.44 billion on Thursday, according to analysts at Meristem Securities Limited.
Subsequently, rates within the NIBOR space declined across board by an average of 2.82 percent, pushing the average rate to 22.74 percent.
Similarly, the Open Buy-Back (OBB) and overnight (OVN) rates declined by 0.83 percent and 2.25 percent, accordingly.
The longer termed Treasury Bills instruments enjoyed more favourable investors’ sentiments, as buy activities pushed yields down for the 9M and 12M instruments by 0.15 percent and 0.22 percent, while other instruments endured yields hike of 0.08 percent across instruments.
Consequently, the average yield for the space pegged at 15.72 percent, representing a marginal decline from yesterday’s position.
In the same vein, despite the offer yields decline for some of the longer-termed instruments, the average offer yield across most instruments advanced by 0.02 percent to peg at 15.50 percent. This is further emphasised by the 0.06 percent decline in Meristem’s Meri-Bond Index.
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
