The cost of purchasing one dollar was stable on Wednesday at between N460 and N461 on the black market.
At the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market, naira weakened by N2 as the dollar was sold at the rate of N462 on Wednesday as against N460 since last week.
The foreign exchange market has been under pressure since March 2020 following a sharp drop in oil prices as a result of Covid-19 pandemic.
BDC operators funded their accounts on Wednesday in anticipation for dollar disbursement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday.
Naira gained N0.33k at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, where the dollar was quoted at N385.67k on Wednesday compared with N386.00k on the previous day, data from FMDQ indicated.
Analysts at FSDH research noted that most participants maintained bids between ₦380.00 and ₦393.11 per dollar.
Earlier, the market opened with an indicative rate of N385.89k on Wednesday, which represented N0.97k depreciation over N384.92k opened with on Tuesday.
The Nigerian treasury bills secondary market closed on a flat note on Wednesday with average yield across the curve remaining unchanged at 0.53 percent. Average yields across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities closed at 0.38 percent, 0.32 percent, and 0.68 percent, respectively.
At the Primary Market Auction held on Wednesday, the CBN offered NT-bills worth N134.37 billion across the 91-day (N29.84 billion), 182-day (N10.62 billion), and 364-day (N93.91 billion) tenors, a report by the FSDH stated.
“We expect trading activities to pick up towards the end of the week as investors seek to place their unmet bids into the NT-Bills secondary market. Furthermore, expected NT-Bills maturities worth N154.37 billion could spur demand, putting further pressure on yields,” said the analysts.
The Overnight (O/N) rate declined by 0.13 percent to close at 1.63 percent from 1.76 percent on the previous day, while the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate remained unchanged at 1.00 percent. The money market rates remained low due to abundant liquidity in the market.
In the Open Market Operation (OMO) bills market, the average yield across the curve closed flat at 0.51 percent. Average yields across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities remained unchanged at 0.42 percent, 0.50 percent, and 71 percent, respectively.
