Nigeria’s currency on Wednesday weakened marginally at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window by 0.05 percent as the dollar closed at N408.80k compared to N408.60k closed on Tuesday.
Currency traders who participated in the trading on Wednesday maintained bids at between N380.00k and N429.75k/$, according to data from the FMDQ.
Demand for dollars was moderate across foreign exchange market segment. Liquidity also improved as the daily market turnover increased by 72.18 percent to $212.43 million on Wednesday from $123.37 million recorded on Tuesday.
At the black market and Bureau De Change segment of the foreign exchange market, naira steadied at N480 and N477 per dollar respectively.
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.
At the money market, the Nigerian treasury bills market remained flat for a second consecutive session, keeping yields at 1.5%, as investors focused on the Primary Market Auction (PMA), a report by Greenwich Merchant Bank Limited said.
Also, system liquidity saw an uptick of 4.8% to N691.1bn from N659.03bn. As a result, the Open Buy Back (OBB) and Over Night (O/N) rates dipped to 1.5% and 1.8% respectively from 1.8% and 2.0% on the previous day.
The Open Market Operation (OMO) market traded bullish following buying interests across the tickers. Yields decreased by 8bps to average 6.1% from 6.2% in the previous session.
Bulls held sway in the Bonds market, pointing yields 27bps lower to average 9.3%. Across the curve, the short end (-80bps) and the long end (-11bps) were bullish, while investors sold off the belly of the curve (+2bps). The 23-Mar-25 instrument was the most bought (-203bps).
