EQUITIES
Bargain-hunting activities resumed today in the Nigerian equities market with SEPLAT (+8.3%), ZENITHBANK (+3.9%), and PRESCO (+4.1%) lifting the bourse by 0.6% to 190,427.96 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns inched higher to +15.2% and +22.4%, respectively.
The total volume of trade advanced by 205.7% to 3.67 billion units, valued at NGN61.89 billion, and exchanged in 68,693 deals. FCMB was the most traded stock by volume and value at 2.94 billion units and NGN35.88 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive as the Oil & Gas (+3.9%), Banking (+0.7%), Consumer Goods (+0.2%), and Industrial Goods (+0.1%) indices advanced, while the Insurance (-0.2%) index declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.8x), as 33 tickers gained relative to 42 losers. MANSARD (+10.0%) and SKYAVN (+10.0%) led the gainers, while DEAPCAP (-10.0%) and MECURE (-10.0%) posted the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate appreciated by 0.3% to NGN1,335.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 2bps to 22.8%, in the absence of any significant inflow into the system.
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were bullish as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 17.5%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp), mid (-1bp) and long (-3bps) segments, driven by the demand for the 92DTM (-1bp), 169DTM (-1bp), and 351DTM (22bps) bills, respectively. Likewise, the average yield contracted by 3bps to 20.9% in OMO segment.
The FGN bond secondary market closed on a bullish note, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 16.0%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the mid (-17bps) segment, driven by demand for the JUL-2034 (-40bps) bond, but remained unchanged at the short and long end.
