EQUITIES
The Nigerian equities market closed today’s trading session on a positive note, as gains in MTNN (+1.1%), HONYFLOUR (+6.4%), ACCESSCORP (+1.0%), and NB (+0.9%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 0.1% to 143,239.23 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -7.1% and +39.2%, respectively.
The total volume of trades declined by 56.0% to 324.55 million units, valued at NGN13.05 billion, and exchanged in 18,328 deals. FIDELITYBK was the most traded stock by volume at 32.20 million units, while GTCO was the most traded stock by value at NGN2.27 billion.
Sectoral performance was mixed as the Insurance (+1.3%), Consumer Goods (+0.1%) and Banking (+0.1%) indices advanced, while the Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indices closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.7x), as 33 tickers gained relative to 19 losers. LINKASSURE (+10.0%) and IKEJAHOTEL (+10.0%) led the gainers, while CHAMPION (-9.9%) and STERLINGNG (-8.3%) posted the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 1.4% to NGN1,445.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 4bps to 22.7%, in the absence of system liquidity pressures.
The NTB secondary market traded on a bearish note, as the average yield expanded by 122bp to 16.9%. Across the curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+27bps), mid (+92bps) and long (+206bps) segments, due to profit-taking activities on the 84DTM (+54bps), 189DTM (+136bps) and 357DTM (+307bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield expanded by 42bps to 21.9% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded on a calm note, albeit with bearish sentiments, as the average yield expanded by 1bps to 15.4%. Across the curve, the average yield expanded at the long (+3bps) end, due to sell pressures on the JAN-2042 (+18bps) bond, but remained unchanged at the short and mid segments.
