The bond market witnessed slight drawback in yields at the close of last week, following a slowdown in offshore profit taking and renewed buying interest from local clients.
As such, yields contracted by c.7bps on average, however, yields jumped slightly from their intra-day lows following release of the OMO auction result in which all subscriptions were filled by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
We expect the market to close the week on a slightly weaker note, as most buying interests would be constrained by the tight system liquidity and the relatively higher yields in the T-bills space.
The T-bills market turned significantly bearish, with yields rising higher by c.40bps across the curve. This came as market players repriced their quotes following the significant OMO sale (c.N454bn) by the CBN at a 5bps higher rate on both maturities.
We expect the market to remain significantly bearish tomorrow, due to the tight system liquidity and expected outflows for retail FX funding by banks.
The OBB and OVN soared significantly higher to 16.67% and 18.88% respectively. This came on the back of the significant OMO sale by the CBN, which is estimated to take system liquidity to a net negative position for the first time since on the 6th of December 2017.
We expect rates to remain elevated tomorrow, as banks look to fund for their retail FX bids, which is estimated to result in a net outflow of funds despite expected refunds from the previous retail FX sales.
The Interbank rate remained stable at its previous rate of N305.75/$, with the CBN’s external reserves recorded to have leaped by 1.52% to $47.85bn as at 9-May. The NAFEX rate depreciated further by 0.14% to N361.36/$, while rates in the Unofficial market remained stable at N361.50/$.
Meanwhile, the Sovereigns recovered significantly from the intense bearish pressures witnessed in previous sessions.
This was following renewed investor demand especially on the 27s, 38s and 47s which gained as much as +2.00pt. Yields consequently compressed by c.16bps across the curve.
