8 September, 2011, Sweetcrude, Lagos – International News
· EUR: The euro slipped in Asia on Thursday and faces headwinds from suspicions that Europe’s efforts to fix its debt crisis may not be fast enough to keep markets happy, while the Australian dollar was knocked by a surprise decline in the country’s employment levels.
· GBP: Sterling hits its weakest versus the dollar in nearly two months on Thursday, extending losses as some investors speculated the Bank of England may announce more economic stimulus when it makes its monthly policy announcement later in the day.
· CHF: The Swiss franc slipped against the dollar and the euro on Thursday as the focus shifted out of Switzerland and to the European Central bank’s rate decision due later in the session to see how it plans to keep fighting the euro zone’s debt problems.
Nigeria News
· Bonds – Sentiment continues to be bearish though market is quiet and volumes remain low and the moves quite small from day to day.
· Bills – Auction day yesterday and so trading was very patchy as the results are expected to chart the direction short term. At the auction the CBN increased the offer on the 364 day bill from NGN30bn to NGN60bn. The 91, 182 & 364day bills closed at 7.6980%, 8.40 & 9.0500% respectively. The current CRR monitoring cycle ended yesterday and so we expect to see some of the liquidity deployed into very short dated securities in the bill market.
· Money Market – Unsecured O/N rates closed at 8.75%.
· Interbank/WDAS – $400m was offered and sold at yesterday’s WDAS auction with demand at $436.14m. CBN intervened at $/NGN154.6916.
Fx
Hi Low Close Prev.Close
USD/NGN 156.40/50 156.60/70 156.10/20 155.65/75
