SAT MARCH 29 2025-theGBJournal| The Treasury bills secondary market was bearish this week, driven by market participants who sold off bills in expectation of higher stop rates at the primary market auction.
The average yield expanded by 85bps to 21.7%. Across the market segments, the average yield advanced by 15bps and 168bps to 19.4% and 24.2% in the NTB and OMO segments, respectively.
At Wednesday’s NTB auction, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offered bills worth N700.00 billion – N80.00 billion for the 91D, N120.00 billion for the 182D, and N500.00 billion for the 364D bills.
Subscription level settled higher at N1.43 trillion (previous auction: N902.04 billion), with a bid-to-offer ratio of 2.0x (previous auction: 1.1x).
The auction closed with the Debt Management Office (DMO) allotting N808.73 billion – N38.65 billion for the 91D, N24.27 billion for the 182D, and N745.80 billion for the 364D papers – at respective stop rates of 18.00% (unchanged), 18.50% (unchanged) and 19.63% (previous: 19.94%).
Meanwhile, the overnight (OVN) rate contracted by 594bps w/w to 27.0% as inflows from FAAC disbursements (c. N980.00 billion), FGN bond coupon payments (N600.19 billion) and NTB maturities (N649.81 billion) offset debits for the FGN bond PMA (N271.21 billion) and net NTB issuances (N108.73 billion).
Consequently, the average system liquidity improved, settling at a net long position of N29.28 billion (vs a net short position of NGN1.52 trillion in the previous week).
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