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CBN raises N192bn in Treasury bills

By on February 8, 2015

The Central Bank of Nigeria has sold N192.39bn ($1bn) worth of Treasury bills with maturities of between three months and one year.

The Debt Management Office on Thursday said the yields on the three-month tenor paper attracted 10.98 per cent at an auction on Wednesday.

The yield is 0.22 percentage points lower than the 11.20 per cent fetched at the last auction on January 21.

The yield on the six-month paper fell by 0.29 per cent to 13.9 per cent against the 14.19 per cent at the previous auction, while the one-year paper fetched 14.30 per cent, 0.26 percentage point lower than 14.56 per cent at the January 21 auction.

The DMO said the total subscription fell to N461.91bn compared with the N611.2bn demanded by investors at the last auction.

In total, the debt office sold N45.17bn in the three-month paper, N30bn in the six-month note and N117.22bn in the one-year bills.

The DMO also said it planned to raise N90bn ($475m) in sovereign bonds with maturities ranging between five years and 20 years at its next regular auction on February 11.

The debt office had on Tuesday said it would auction N35bn worth of the five-year bond; N30bn of the 10-year paper and N25bn of the 20-year debt note, using the Dutch Auction System.

The five-year debt note is a fresh issue, while the 10-year and 20-year bonds are the re-opening of the previously issued paper. Results of the auction would be expected to be announced the following day, the debt office said in a notice.

Meanwhile, the naira recovered from a record low to end trading unchanged on Thursday, after the central bank sold dollars to prop up the local currency.

The naira closed where it opened on Thursday, at 192.70 to the dollar.

A report obtained on Thursday said the currency had fallen to a record low of 194.65 shortly after the market opened, then recovered as the central bank stepped in.

It had closed within a range of 190.10 to 192.40 the day before.

It noted that the central bank had been intervening almost daily in the interbank market since the beginning of the year. The naira has suffered as falling oil prices weaken Nigeria’s economy, causing foreign investment to dwindle.

Dealers said the dollar demand was significant on the interbank market, most of it from importers.

The naira has been trading outside a target of 160-176 to the dollar that the central bank set following the devaluation in November. It has continued its slide to record lows despite the bank’s interventions.

Last month, the central bank doubled the amount being sold at the weekly auctions to the Bureau de Change operators to $30,000, to increase dollar liquidity.

The CBN said on Tuesday it would again sell $30,000 to each of more than 2,500 bureau de change operators on Friday.

The WSTC Financial Services Limited had said the yields on fixed-income securities such as bonds and Treasury bills would remain attractive this year as the government was expected to borrow more.

 

[Punch]