EQUITIES
The local bourse sustained its bullish momentum, as gains in DANGCEM (+3.7%), TRANSCORP (+3.9%) and UBA (+3.3%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 0.4% to 139,863.52 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at +16.6% and +35.9%, respectively.
The total volume of trades advanced by 20.3% to 1.11 billion units, valued at NGN33.65 billion, and exchanged in 37,370 deals. FCMB was the most traded stock by volume at 121.54 million units, while WAPCO was the most traded stock by value at NGN3.53 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly mixed as the Industrial Goods (+1.4%), Oil & Gas (+0.9%) and Banking (+0.1%) indices closed higher, while the Insurance (-4.3%) index declined. The Consumer Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.5x), as 52 tickers lost relative to 28 gainers. MANSARD (-10.0%) and LEARNAFRCA (-10.0%) recorded the most significant losses of the day while. WEMABANK (+10.0%) and UACN (+10.0%) led the gainers.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate appreciated by 0.2% to NGN1,530.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 10bps to 27.0%, in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
The NTB secondary market traded on a calm note with a bearish undertone, as the average yield slightly expanded by 1bp to 17.78%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-4bps) end, driven by demand for the 84DTM (-27bps) bill, but expanded at mid (+3bps) and long (+2bps) segments, due to sell pressures on the 161DTM (+14bps) and 308DTM (+14bps) bills, respectively. The average yield expanded by 4bps to 24.7% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded by 2bps to 16.1%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+1bp), mid (+4bps) and long (+1bp) segments, due to sell pressures on the JUL-2030 (+7bps), APR-2032 (+19bps) and JUL-2053 (+7bps) bonds, respectively.
