EQUITIES
Trading in the domestic bourse kicked off the week on a positive note as buying interest in STANBIC (+5.3%), GTCO (+2.2%) and JBERGER (+9.9%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 0.3% to 141,439.77 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at +1.1% and +37.4%, respectively.
The total volume of trades declined by 54.6% to 591.25 million units, valued at NGN11.66 billion, and exchanged in 33,342 deals. FCMB was the most traded stock by volume at 105.13 million units, while GTCO was the most traded stock by value at NGN2.40 billion.
On sectors, performance was mixed as the Insurance (+3.8%), Banking (+1.1%) and Consumer Goods (+0.3%) indices closed higher, while the Oil & Gas (-0.3%) index declined. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (2.4x), 38 tickers gained relative to 16 losers. JBERGER (+9.9%) and CUTIX (+9.9%) led the gainers, while UPL (-9.9%) and CADBURY (-9.6%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 0.9% to NGN1,534.50/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 223bps to 26.9%, in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
The NTB secondary market traded on a bearish note as the average yield expanded by 4bps to 18.4%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps) and long (-3bps) ends, driven by demand for the 73DTM (-3bps) and 360DTM (-16bps) bills, respectively but expanded at the mid (+23bps) segment, driven by the selloff of the 150DTM (+73bps) bill. Conversely, the average yield contracted by 5bps to 24.5% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded on a quiet note, albeit with a bearish tilt as the average yield expanded by 1bp to 16.5%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the mid (+2bps) segment, driven by the profit-taking activities on the FEB-2031 (+10bps) bond, but it remained unchanged at the short and long ends.
