Chevron Sells $7.5m as Demand Rises by 125%
Dutch Auction
By Ayodele Aminu and Amarachukwu Ona
Chevron Nigeria Limited yesterday boosted the supply side of the foreign exchange market with the sale of $7.5 million to a select number of banks.
The inflow from the oil firm is coming just as the naira gained one kobo against the United States' dollar, ending its five-week stagnation at N132.75 per dollar.
At the close of business yesterday, one US dollar therefore exchanged for N132.76 at the 191st edition of the Dutch Auction System (DAS).
Chevron THISDAY gathered, had invited a select number of banks to bid for its forex yesterday. Banks whose quotes are favourable are expected to move the naira equivalent of their forex demands to the oil firm today and receive value tomorrow.
According to the summary of yesterday's transactions, out of the $90 million offered for sale by the apex bank Monday, total amount demanded by 65 banks on behalf of their customers stood at $194,599,410.83, out of which bids amounting to $86,116,343.33 were successful. Unsuccessful bids therefore amounted to $70,860,063.14, while the amount for disqualified bids and unfunded account stood at $37,303,796.15 and $319,208.22 respectively.
The $86,116,343.33 sold to banks yesterday by the apex bank is 5.21 per cent or $4.2 million more than the $81,852,086.17 sold in the last trading session, while the $194,599,410.83 demanded is 125 per cent or $108 million more than the $86,441,532.02 demanded in the previous day's transaction.
Further analysis indicates that the highest bid rate remained unchanged at N134.00 per dollar, while the lowest bid rate inched up from N132.40 to N132.50 per dollar.
Reasons given by the banking watchdog for voiding some of yesterday's bids range from incomplete address; duplicated form 'm' numbers, purpose not explicit, multiple bids, all other rates below marginal rate as well as unfunded account.
Cumulatively, the $86,116,343.33 sold to banks by the banking watchdog yesterday, brings to $23.74 billion the total amount of foreign exchange that has been sold to banks by the CBN since the debut of the DAS July 22, 2002.
Similarly, the $90 million offered to banks Monday brings the total amount of foreign exchange that has been offered by the CBN since the debut of DAS to $17.677 billion.
At the export proceeds market the naira exchange rate against the dollar remained unchanged at N134.80 per one US dollar, While at the parallel market, the naira exchange rate stood at N140.00 per one US dollar.
At the Nigeria Inter-bank Foreign Exchange Fixing (NIFEX) where the market quotes represent rates at which $1 million and above are traded amongst banks in the inter-bank foreign exchange market, the bid and offer rates of one United States dollar stood at N133.4750 and N133.7750 respectively.
Thirty days spot fixing had swap points of 1.6856/1.6894 with forward fixings of 135.1606/135.4644 while 60 days spot fixing had swap points of 3.4943/3.5021 with forward fixings of 136.9693/137.2771. Ninety days spot fixings had swap points of 5.2276/5.2394 with forward fixings of 138.7026/138.0144 while 180 days spot fixing had swap points of 10.3109/10.3341 with forward fixings of 143.7859/143.1091.
At the Nigeria Inter-bank Offered Rate (NIBOR) where the quotes represent rates at which large amounts (N100 million and above) are traded among banks in the inter-bank market, 7 days tenored funds traded at 15.0000 per cent per annum while 30, 60, 90, 180 and 365 days traded at 16.6250, 16.9833, 17.3333, 17.2500 and 16.9000 per cents respectively at the close of business yesterdayAt the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR), 30 days tenored funds traded at 1.3512 per cent, while 60, 90 and 180 days tenored funds closed at 1.4600, 1.5775 and 1.8337 per cents per annum at the close of business yesterday.
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