EQUITIES
The local stock market extended yesterday’s losses driven by sell pressures on FBNH (-5.0%) and other tier-1 banks. As a result, the NGX ASI declined by 0.3% to close at 104,181.32 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns printed -0.4% and +39.3%, respectively.
The total volume of trades decreased by 25.8% to 405.03 million units, valued at NGN8.91 billion, and exchanged in 10,364 deals. ACCESSCORP was the most traded stock by volume at 50.00 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value at NGN1.86 billion.
On sectors, the Banking (-2.4%) and Insurance (-2.1%) indices posted losses while the Consumer Goods (+0.2%) index gained. The Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.6x), as 32 tickers lost relative to 20 gainers. INTENEGINS (-10.0%) and CAVERTON (-10.0%) recorded the highest losses of the day, while UPL (+9.8%) and SCOA (+9.7%) topped the gainers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 1.3% to NGN1,262.85/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 26bps to 25.2%, in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
The NTB secondary market traded on a bullish note, as the average yield dipped by 5bps to 17.6%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp), mid (-13bps) and long (-1bp) segments following buying interests in the 85DTM (-1bp), 176DTM (-86bps) and 323DTM (-1bp) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield pared by 1bp to 18.4% in the OMO segment.
Proceedings in the Treasury bond secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 19.2%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield decreased at the short (-15bps) end due to demand for the MAR-2027 (-79bps) bond but was flat at the mid and long segments.
