20 February 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Local and international financial market products and services update.
NIGERIA: Apparently worried by the continuous decline in the nation’s economy, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, yesterday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to convene an emergency economic conference for experts to brainstorm on the way forward and future of the economy.
The Nobel laureate made the call when he paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja.
According to Soyinka, the conference became necessary to enable experts diagnose the problems currently facing the country and make necessary recommendations for government to get the economy out of the woods.
FIXED INCOME: With system liquidity still surplus, fixed income yields remain low. Wednesday’s T-bill auction prints brought some demand as expected but it was on the long end of the bill curve. Bonds felt well bid yesterday but activity from locals and real money accounts remain tepid. CRR maintenance cycle yesterday but in the last few months, this has been overshadowed by the excess cash in the system.
FX: The CBN weekly Special auction for this week held yesterday and the intervention rate at $/NGN 197.00. We expect the results later in the day.
COMMODITIES: Oil traded below $31 a barrel after U.S. crude stockpiles rose to the highest in more than eight decades as Saudi Arabia and Russia propose to freeze output amid a worldwide surplus.
Futures lost as much as 1.4% in New York, trimming the first weekly advance this month. U.S. supplies expanded to 504 million barrels, the highest level in data going back to 1930, according to the Energy Information Administration. Iraq said on Thursday it backs any decision to support prices and balance the market without indicating whether it would cap its own output.
U.K: Prime Minister David Cameron argued for much of the night in Brussels on Friday with European Union partners determined to limit concessions on offer to help keep Britain in the bloc.
Fellow leaders and diplomats said an agreement that would allow Cameron to return to London and launch a campaign to stay in the EU at a June referendum still seemed feasible by the end of a two-day summit on Friday, but some said the outstanding issues were proving tough to crack, holding up the process.
A late-night dinner lasting more than five hours that was devoted to renewed arguments over the response to Europe’s migration crisis also meant that a plan for an “English breakfast” on Friday for all 28 leaders to try and hammer out a final deal was now set to turn into “brunch”.
CHINA: China’s central bank will boost the amount of reserves that must be locked away by some banks that recently increased lending too quickly, people familiar with the matter said.
Regional banks are among those lenders affected by the increase, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the move wasn’t made public. The people didn’t give additional details about which banks were affected. The People’s Bank of China didn’t immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.
Macro Economic Indicators
Inflation rate (Y-o-Y) for December 2015 9.55%
Monetary Policy Rate current 11.00%
FX Reserves (Bn $) as at February 17, 2016 27.797
Money Market Highlights
NIBOR (%)
O/N 4.3750
30 Day 7.4532
90 Day 9.1658
180 Day 10.3886
LIBOR (%)
SD 1 Month 0.4300
USD 2 Months 0.5167
USD 3 Months 0.6194
USD 6 Months 0.8666
Benchmark Yields
Tenor Maturity Yield (%)
91d 26-May-16 3.62
182d 18-Aug-16 6.23
364d 02-Feb-17 8.68
2y 31-Aug-17 10.14
3y 30-May-18 10.49
5y 13-Feb-20 11.92
Indicative Currency Exchange Rates
Bid Offer
USDNGN 197.00 199.50
EURUSD 1.1019 1.1221
GBPUSD 1.4203 1.4406
USDJPY 112.98 113.01
USDCHF 0.98754 0.9976
GBPEUR 1.2762 1.2966
USDZAR 15.3261 15.5299