Foreign investors boycott Central Bank of Nigeria OMO auction again

Investors, local and foreign, boycotted the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) open market operations auction sales, ending with zero sales again. Investors apathy on OMO bills has continue to increase as the spot rates across standard maturities stagnate.

The apex bank has tightened fist on spot rates pricing, especially on one year OMO bills where investors have shown preference to stake huge amount.

According to latest result from primary market auction midweek, the Central Bank offered N150.00 billion worth of OMO bills to investors, market participants.

As changing market dynamics altered investors mood, the subscription level came unimpressive at N86.50 billion, translating to a bid-to-offer: 0.6x at the range of 23.00% – 26.89%.

In its market update, Cordros Capital Limited told investors in an emailed note that, owing to the soft demand, the auction closed with no allotments made, just as witnessed at the previous OMO auction.

The investment firm said they expect yields in the Treasury bills secondary market will maintain its northward movement, envisaging that foreign players will continue to exit their holdings in lieu of the unstable naira.