Eurobond yields fell the most in almost nine months after reports showed the economy accelerated in the fourth quarter and foreign-currency reserves rose.
Yields on the $500m of debt due January 2021 dropped 17 basis points, or 0.17 percentage point, to 4.144 per cent as of 11:52 a.m. in London, the biggest decline since June 6 on a closing basis and the lowest since February 6, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The naira retreated less than 0.1 per cent to N157.45 a dollar.
According to National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s economy grew by 6.99 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter, compared with 6.48 per cent in the third quarter.
The foreign-currency reserves of Africa’s most populous country rose to $47.385bn, the highest level since 2010, the Central Bank of Nigeria in Abuja said on Monday. The reserves have increased by seven per cent this year.
An analyst at Ecobank Transnational Incoporated, Mr. Kunle Ezun, said, “The current position of Nigeria’s reserves and trend in gross domestic product adds to the positive investment outlook of the economy.”
NBS said the Nigerian economy would probably expand by 6.8 per cent this year.
The nation’s inflation rate fell to nine per cent in January from 12 per cent in December, according to the statistics office.
The yield on the country’s 16.39 per cent domestic bonds due January 2022 declined two basis points to 10.60 per cent in the secondary market, according to Tuesday’s data compiled on the Financial Markets Dealers Association website.
Ghana’s cedi retreated 0.1 per cent to 1.9195 per dollar in Accra, the capital.