EQUITIES
The Nigerian equities market opened the week’s trading on a bearish note as selloffs in TRANSCORP (-5.5%) undermined market performance. As a result, the NGX ASI declined marginally by 2bps to close at 100,006.79 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.1% and +33.8%, respectively.
The total volume of trades advanced by 67.2% to 689.98 million units, valued at NGN7.16 billion, and exchanged in 9,635 deals. ELLAHLAKES was the most traded stock by volume at 271.49 million units, while GTCO was the most traded stock by value at NGN1.94 billion.
Across the sectors, the Oil & Gas (+1.5%), Banking (+0.3%) and Insurance (+0.2%) indices posted gains, while the Industrial Goods index closed flat. The Consumer Goods (-0.3%) index was the sole loser for the day.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed (1.0x), as 23 tickers lost relative to 22 gainers. PZ (-10.0%) and CWG (-9.8%) recorded the highest losses of the day, while VERITASKAP (+9.6%) and DAARCOMM (+8.3%) topped the gainers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.9% to NGN1,523.85/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 25bps to 32.3% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Sentiments in the Treasury bills secondary market were bearish, as the average yield expanded by 39bps to 22.9%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-3bps) and mid (-4bps) segments, driven by buying interest in the 80DTM (-3bps) and 171DTM (-4bps) bills, respectively. Meanwhile, the average yield expanded at the long (+28bps) end due to profit-taking activities on the 248DTM (+108bps) bill. In the OMO segment, the average yield contracted by 5bps to 24.3%.
Activities in the Treasury bond secondary market were mixed but with a bearish bias, as the average yield expanded slightly by 1bp to 18.6%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield increased at the short (+3bps) end, as investors sold off the MAR-2025 (+8bps) bond but closed flat at the mid and long segments.
