EQUITIES
The domestic bourse commenced the week on a bullish note as gains in GTCO (+1.8%) and OANDO (+2.7%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 0.6% to 98,215.13 points. Sequentially, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.4% and +31.4%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 0.2% to 304.97 million units, valued at NGN19.71 billion, and exchanged in 8,083 deals. CUTIX was the most traded stock by volume at 37.93 million units, while the newly listed ARADEL was the most traded stock by value at NGN14.46 billion.
From a sectoral perspective, the Banking (+0.4%), Insurance (+0.3%), and Consumer Goods (+0.2%) indices advanced, while the Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.6x), as 31 tickers lost relative to 18 gainers. VITAFOAM (-9.1%) and TANTALIZER (-8.3%) led the losers, while WAPIC (+10.0%) and MECURE (+8.9%) topped the gainers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 5.7% to NGN1,552.92/USD in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 33bps to 33.0% inflows from FGN bond coupon (NGN28.22 billion).
Trading activities in the T-bills secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 23.1%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-4bps), mid (-4bps), and long (-5bps) segments following interests in the 87DTM (-4bps), 178DTM (-5bps), and 346DTM (-5bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 6bps to 25.9% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded on a calm note, as the average yield closed flat at 18.9%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield pared at the short (-1bp) end, driven by the demand for the MAR-25 (-9bps) bond, but closed flat at the mid and long segments.