The Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTB) average yield dropped to 18.18% amid subdued trading activities in the secondary market ahead of the main auction scheduled for Wednesday.
According to CardinalStone, a leading investment firm, the dip in the NTB average yield is due to soft demand for the debt instruments.
On Tuesday, the NTB traded more softly with pockets of transactions observed as investors planned to optimize their portfolio.
As expected, the market anticipates another round of spot rates adjustments across standard tenors, though sentiment remains mixed given a significant cut in OMO rates last week even as trading activities remained relatively subdued across all maturities, and this kept rates unchanged along the curve amid balanced demand–supply dynamics.
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Specifically, in the week under review, NTB trading remained muted across the short, mid, and long segments, with all bills closing unchanged as investors were few, resulting in minimal price action across the market.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is set to conduct its first Treasury Bills (T-Bills) auction in January today and the auction, which is expected to be conducted by the Debt Management Office (DMO), is anticipated to be oversubscribed due to healthy liquidity levels in the financial system.
At the auction, NTBs with 91 days maturity worth N150 billion will be offered for subscription and the 182-day maturity worth N150 billion, and N364 bills totaling N800 billion bills would also be offered for subscription.
