The treasury bills auction conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday at the primary market received significant interests from investors, results of the exercise analysed by Business Post revealed.
It was observed that 364-day tenor was the most attractive, forcing the apex bank to slice the stop rate by 0.61 per cent to 17.82 per cent.
Details of the sales indicated that the central bank approached the market with N500 billion worth of the maturity, but it got bids valued at N1.8 trillion from investors, showing a strong appetite.
However, only N717.97 billion was allotted by the CBN at the close of the PMA. At the previous exercise, the 12-month paper cleared at 18.43 per cent.
Also, the central bank tampered with stop rate of the 182-day treasury bills during the session, cut by 0.25 per cent to 17.75 per cent from the previous 18.00 per cent.
This action was taken despite the tenor not experiencing an oversubscription like the long-dated bill.
Business Post reports that N80.00 billion worth of the six-month maturity was brought to the market for sale but investors submitted bids valued at N60.05 billion, with N50.95 billion approved by the apex bank.
But the stop rate of the 91-day instrument was left intact by the central bank at 17.00 per cent at the exercise.
About N70.00 billion worth of the three-month T-bills were auctioned on Wednesday, but the bids received were just N62.57 billion, with N61.52 billion allotted at the end of the exercise.
From the analysis, the CBN auctioned a total of N650 billion treasury bills during the PMA, but it got bids valued at N1.92 trillion, and allotted N830.44 billion.