EQUITIES
The local bourse closed on a bearish note in today’s session, as profit-taking activities in MTNN (-1.4%), FIRSTHOLDCO (-2.2%), and FIDELITYBK (-3.8%) weighed down the All-Share Index by 0.3% to 165,164.38 points. As a result, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at +6.1%.
The total volume of trades advanced by 29.0% to 623.18 million units, valued at NGN16.54 billion, and exchanged in 42,172 deals. NEIMETH was the most traded stock by volume at 58.13 million units, while GEREGU was the most traded stock by value at NGN2.78 billion.
On sectors, performance was broadly negative as the Insurance (-1.3%), Consumer Goods (-0.5%), and Banking (-0.4%) indices declined. The Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.9x), as 32 tickers gained relative to 37 losers. RTBRISCOE (-10.0%) and MAYBAKER (-10.0%) led the laggards, while UHOMREIT (+10.0%) and DEAPCAP (+10.0%) posted the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate remained unchanged at NGN1400.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate remained unchanged at 22.8% despite debits from the FGN bond auction (NGN1.54 trillion).
The NTB secondary market closed on a bullish note, as the average yield contracted by 3bps to 18.4%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp), mid (-1bp) and long (-9bps) segments driven by demand for the 85DTM (-1bp), 176DTM (-1bp) and 358DTM (-63bps) bills, respectively. Conversely, the average yield contracted by 74bps to 21.6% in the OMO segment.
The FGN bond secondary market traded on a quiet note, as the average yield remained unchanged at 15.7%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the mid (-2bps) segment, following buying interest in the JUN-2033 (-9bps) bond, but remained unchanged at the short and long end.
