EQUITIES
The Nigerian equities staged a rebound, recouping prior session losses. Bullish sentiments resurfaced in the domestic equities market today, as bargain hunting in UBA (+6.2%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 0.2% to close at 99,832.25 points. As a result, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to +0.5% and +33.5%, respectively.
The total volume traded declined by 40.8% to 502.60 million units, with a value of NGN8.65 billion, and exchanged in 9,686 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by both volume and value at 71.22 million units and NGN2.52 billion, respectively.
Performance across the sectors mirrored the overall market sentiment, as the Insurance (+1.8%), Banking (+1.0%), Consumer Goods (+0.3%), and Industrial Goods (+0.1%) indices recorded gains, while the Oil & Gas index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.6x), as 28 tickers gained relative to 18 losers. NB (+10.0%) and UNITYBNK (+9.9%) recorded the most significant gains of the day, while ETI (-9.9%) and DAARCOMM (-8.8%) topped the losers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.2% to NGN1,476.24/USD in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET AND FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 53bps to 31.2% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
Activities in the NTB secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 21.9%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-2bps), mid (-2bps), and long (-1bp) segments following interests in the 91DTM (-3bps), 182DTM (-3bps), and 343DTM (-3bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield dipped by 8bps to 21.8% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded with mixed sentiments, albeit with a bearish tilt, as the average yield expanded by 1bp to 18.6%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield increased slightly at the short (+1bp) end due to the sell-off of the MAR-2025 (+4bps) bond but remained unchanged at the mid and long segments.
