EQUITIES
The local bourse extended yesterday’s bullish performance as bargain hunting in MTNN (+10.0%) drove the benchmark index 1.0% higher. Thus, the All-Share index closed at 98,118.30 points, with the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increasing to +0.4% and +29.9%, respectively.
The total trading volume advanced by 24.4% to 791.78 million units, valued at NGN15.13 billion, and exchanged in 9,059 deals. NEM was the most traded stock by volume at 187.51 million units, while GTCO was the most traded by value at NGN5.06 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as the Banking (+1.7%), Insurance (+1.4%), Consumer Goods (+0.5%), and Oil and Gas (+0.3%) indices inched higher, while the Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was broadly positive (1.8x), as 32 tickers gained relative to 18 losers. MTNN (+10.0%) and VITAFOAM (+10.0%) recorded the most significant gains of the day, while UCAP (-9.9%) and ABBEYBDS (-8.1%) topped the losers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 0.2% to NGN1,593.62/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 587bps to 31.7% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
The Treasury bills secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 6bps to 26.0%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp), mid (-2bps), and long (-11bps) segments due to participants’ demand for the 91DTM (-2bps), 182DTM (-2bps), and 245DTM (-87bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 2bps to 26.1% in the OMO segment.
Conversely, the Treasury bonds secondary market closed on a bearish note, as the average yield advanced by 14bps to 19.8%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield increased at the short (+30bps) and mid (+34bps) segments as investors took profits off the APR-2029 (+96bps) and JUL-2030 (+60bps) bonds, respectively. but pared at the long (-1bp) end following buying interest in JUN-2038 (-11bps) bond.
