Naira Falls Against United States Dollar

The marginal gain by the naira against the United States dollar was eroded in the Investors and Exporters window as the Nigerian currency lost 1 basis point to close at NGN415/USD.

It, however, remained stable in the interbank bank market, exchanging at NGN411.63 to the US dollar.

Figures compiled by our correspondent showed that the naira still maintained its position as it exchanged between NGN555.15 and NGN553.05 to a US dollar in the parallel market.

In other news, the overnight lending rate declined from its previous day (16.02%) by 652bps to 9.5% due to the absence of any significant funding pressure.

Trading in the Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTS) secondary market was quiet as investors awaited today’s primary market auction (PMA). As a result, the average yield stayed flat at 5.1%.

Elsewhere, the average yield expanded slightly to 5.5% following inflows from matured Open Market Operations (OMO) securities.

Consequently, the Treasury bond secondary market ended in a mixed mood, as bearish sentiment tilted the average yield slightly higher to 11.3%.

The average yield contracted at the short end (-27bps) due to demand for the APR-2023 (-27bps) bond, but expanded at the mid (7bps) and long (28bps) ends as investors sold off the APR-2029 (+15bps) and MAR-2050 (+15bps) bonds, respectively.

Other economic indicators stayed the same as MPR, inflation, and the external reserve stood at 11.5%, 20.79%, and USD41.39 billion, respectively.