Nigeria’s naira firmed slightly against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, a day after the central bank left interest rates on hold and said it would keep monetary conditions tight, dealers said.

The central bank kept rates on hold for the sixth time in a row at 12 percent on Tuesday, welcoming improved growth and a slight fall in headline inflation. But it said monetary measures will remain hawkish for the foreseeable future.

Financial markets in Africa’s second biggest economy were closed when the rate decision was made on Tuesday.

The naira opened for trade at 157.50 to the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, higher than Tuesday’s close of 157.75.

Dealers said the naira was partly driven by inflows from foreign investors buying bonds at an auction on Wednesday and oil companies selling the greenback to lenders.

“Chevron sold around $113 million to some lenders … NLNG sold an undisclosed amount and (there were) inflows from investors buying bonds,” one dealer told Reuters.

Nigeria plans to sell 60 billion naira in bonds on Wednesday with maturities of five and seven years.

The central bank said $1.4 billion of foreign investment flowed into debt in August.

Olayemi Agbe-Davies, a bond dealer at Standard Chartered Bank, told Reuters debt markets had anticipated the hold decision on rates and already factored it into bond pricing, so yields were largely steady on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters (Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Additional reporting by Oludare Mayowa; Editing by Tim Cocks)