EQUITIES
The domestic stock market kicked off on a bearish note as sell pressures on GTCO (-7.9%), DANGSUGAR (-10.0%), SEPLAT (-2.3%) and ZENITHBANK (-4.0%) undermined market performance. Accordingly, the All-Share Index declined by 0.2% to close at 97,962.24 points. As a result, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -6.3% and +31.0%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 4.6% to 277.24 million units, valued at NGN5.08 billion, and exchanged in 8,714 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume and value at 34.56 million and NGN799.45 million, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Consumer Goods (-0.8%), Insurance (-0.7%) and Banking (-0.4%) indices printed lower while the Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.3x), as 24 tickers gained relative to 19 losers. STERLINGNG (+10.0%) and FBNH (+9.8%) topped the gainers’ list, while DANGSUGAR (-10.0%) and NSLTECH (-10.0%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 5.6% to NGN1,419.11/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 58bps to 30.7%, following the inflows from FGN bond coupon payments (NGN53.35 billion).
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield declined by 12bps to 22.2%. Across the curve, the average yield dipped at the short (-34bps), mid (-3bps) and long (-4bps) segments due to buying interest in the 24DTM (-179bps), 178DTM (-4bps) and 332DTM (-6bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 3bps to 18.8% in the OMO segment.
Trading in the Treasury bond secondary market was mixed, as the average yield remained at 18.9%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+2bps) end due to profit-taking activities on the MAR-2025 (+4bps) bond but pared at the mid (-1bp) segment driven by demand for the JUN-2033 (-4bps) bond. Meanwhile, the average yield closed flat at the long end.
