The central bank in Africa’s red metal producer today sold K717.3million is treasury bills. With K893million of purchasing power into Thursday 11 March K950million debt sale, the Bank of Zambia absorbed 81% of the market appetite for government securities observed. Bids for one year paper were in excess of K600million of the K475million on offer, while central bank locked in K464million of these in cash terms.
Market appetite for shorter dated high yielding assets has persisted with more skew towards bills than longer dated bonds.
Yields ebbed 25bps higher for the 1-year to 29.25% while the 6month treasury assets were prices 30bps higher than the last auction at 21.25%.
Currency risks remain elevated as the Kwacha tracked Emerging Market currency (EM) rout closing at 15.725 for a unit of dollar.
The Kwacha Arbitrageur.
