Nigeria’s currency on Thursday firmed by 0.19 percent against the dollar at the official market in spite of over 60 percent drop in liquidity.
Naira/dollar exchange rate closed at N410.70k/$ on Thursday as against N411.50k/$ closed on Wednesday at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, data from the FMDQ said.
Currency traders who participated at the trading session on Thursday maintained bids at between N400.00k and N420.95k per dollar.
The foreign exchange market daily turnover declined by 61.90 percent to $61.00 million on Thursday from $160.12 million recorded on Wednesday.
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Naira steadied at N503 per dollar on Thursday after weakening by N1 from N502/$ on Wednesday at the parallel market.
It also closed flat at N500 per dollar at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market.
At the money market, the Overnight (O/N) rate remained unchanged at 12.00 percent, and the Open Buy Back (OBB) rate also remained unchanged at 11.50 percent.
The Nigerian Treasury Bills secondary market closed on a flat note on Thursday, with the average yield across the curve remaining unchanged at 6.58 percent, according to a report by FSDH Research.
Average yields across short-term, medium-term, and long-term maturities closed flat at 4.35 percent, 5.46 percent, and 8.10 percent, respectively. However, selling pressure was seen in the NTB 26-May-22 maturity bill with a yield increase of 19 bps, while buying interest was seen in the NTB 9-Jun-22 maturity bill with a yield decrease of 18 bps.
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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) held its scheduled Primary Market Auction on June 30, selling NT-Bills worth N163.62 billion across the 91-day (N2.26 billion), 182-day (N3.32 billion), and 364-day (N158.04 billion) tenors. The stop rates for the 91-day and 182-day remained unchanged at 2.50 percent and 3.50 percent, respectively.
However, the stop rate for the 364-day tenor cleared lower at 9.15 percent (-25 bps). The auction was highly oversubscribed by 446 percent, with bid-to-cover ratios settling at 1.75x (91-day), 0.26x (182-day), and 7.41x (364-day).
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In the Open market Operations (OMO) bills market, the average yield across the curve decreased by 1 basis point to close at 9.86 percent as against the last close of 9.87 percent. Mild buying interest was seen across the long-term maturities with the average yield falling by 2 bps. However, the average yields across short-term and medium-term maturities closed flat at 9.29 percent and 9.78 percent, respectively. Buying interest was seen in the OMO 15-Mar-22 (-12 bps), OMO 1-Mar-22 (-8 bps), and OMO 15-Feb-22 (-2 bps) maturity bills, while yields on 21 bills remained unchanged.
The bonds secondary market closed on a mildly positive note on Thursday, as the average bond yield across the curve cleared lower by 7 bps to close at 9.76 percent from 9.83 percent on the previous day. Average yields across the short tenor, medium tenor, and long tenor of the curve declined by 4 bps, 20 bps, and 11 bps, respectively. The 18-JUL-2034 maturity bond was the best performer with a decline in yield of 55 bps.
