20 July 2018 ( Lagos ) 

NTB’s and Money Market

Opening market liquidity on Thursday was N893bn (positive) owing partly to an OMO maturity inflow of N524bn. Interbank rates closed within a range of 6% to 13%. At an OMO auction yesterday, the CBN raised N496bn from the sale of 91-day and 210-day paper at stop rates of 11.05% and 12.15%. On the NTB secondary market, yields continued to trend northwards for most maturities.

FGN Bonds and EuroBonds

The FGN bond market was fairly active and there was an uptick in yields across most traded maturities. As for the Eurobond market, the divergence in yield movements continued across the two asset classes under coverage.

FX

The CBN’s daily fx intervention was again US$0.5m, at N305.35. Turnover at the NAFEX increased from US$212m on Wednesday to US$220m. Indicative rates ranged from N350 to N363. The USD gained ground against a basket of currencies for the third straight session yesterday as it rose to a 12-month high. A report on jobless claims published yesterday showed that the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits declined to a more than 48 year low last week. Markets are expecting the interest rate gap between the US and other major economies to continue to widen.

Source : Gregory Kronsten, Olubunmi Asaolu, Chinwe Egwim from FBNQuest Capital Limited.

Reporting for EasyKobo on Friday, 20 July 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria