Nigerian interbank rate up at 10.50 pct after T-bill sale

Nigeria's interbank lending rates inched up this week to an average of 10.50 percent on Friday, up from 10.37 percent last week after a treasury bill sale drained liquidity, dealers said.
The central bank sold a cobined 200 billion naira ($1.2 billion) worth of bills on Monday and Thursday this week, to manage excess liquidity. It also sold 114.39 billion naira in treasury bills at a primary market auction.
The market opened with a cash balance of around 516 billion naira from government budgetary allocations, oil company cash call payments and matured open market bills, before settling bills sold this week, dealers said.
The cash balance was around 400 billion naira last Friday.
"Unless the central bank sells more bills we expect rates to remain stable next week," one dealer said.
The open buy-back rate climbed slightly to 10.50 percent from 10.25 percent, 1.50 basis points below the central bank's benchmark interest rate of 12 percent.
vernight placements remained unchanged at 10.50 percent, the same level as last week.