EQUITIES
Bullish sentiments persisted in the local bourse today as gains in WAPCO (+3.5%), ETI (+8.5%) and TRANSCORP (+2.1%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 0.1% to 145,476.15 points. As a result, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at +1.4% and +41.3%, respectively.
The total volume of trades declined by 14.2% to 1.93 billion units, valued at NGN19.19 billion, and exchanged in 23,369 deals. ETRANZACT was the most traded stock by volume and valued at 1.58 billion units and NGN 6.37 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, with gains in Insurance (+1.6%), Banking (+0.9%), Industrial Goods (+0.5%), Consumer Goods (+0.3%) and Oil & Gas (+0.1%) indices.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.8x), as 22 tickers gained relative to 27 losers. UACN (+10.0%) and MORISON (+9.9%) topped the gainers, while ELLAHLAKES (-10.0%) and TRANSCOHOT (-10.0%) led the laggards.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 0.5% to NGN1,452.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate remained unchanged at 22.8% in the absence of any funding pressure on the system.
The NTB secondary market traded on a calm note, as the average yield remained unchanged at 17.0%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps) end, driven by the demand for the 91DTM (-7bps) bill, but it expanded at the mid (+1bp) segment due to the sell-off of the 182DTM (+14bps) bill. The average yield closed flat at the long end. Meanwhile, the average yield contracted by 1bp to 21.9% in the OMO segment.
The Treasury bond secondary market closed on a bearish note, as the average yield expanded by 5bps to 15.6%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+15bps) end, driven by profit taking activities in the JUL-2030 (+42bps) bond, but remained unchanged at mid and long segments.
