CBN sells $300m at WDAS

The volume of forex sold at the bi-weekly Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) inched up by $50million to $400million at yesterday’s trading.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) controlled WDAS had on Monday sold $250 million worth of forex to dealers.

The distribution of N357.93 billion among the three tiers of government in March by the the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) also helped to boost liquidity in the system.

A breakdown of the amount indicated that N168.84 billion representing 52.68 per cent went to the Federal Government; the states got N85.63bn representing 26.72 per cent, while the 774 local governments were asked to share N66.02 billion or 20.6 per cent.

The interbank also remained at an average of 11.25 per cent within the week, from about 10.58 per cent the previous week. Rates were expected to hover around 11.50 per cent on average this week because of the injection of March budgetary allocations to the tiers of government.

The secured Open Buy Back (OBB) was unchanged from the previous week at 9.50 per cent, 200 basis points above the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) 7.50 per cent benchmark rate and 4.5 percentage points higher than the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) rate.

Overnight placement rose to 12 per cent from 11.0 per cent, and call money to 12.25 per cent against 11.25 per cent two weeks ago.

Source : The Nation