EQUITIES
The Nigerian equities market closed on a positive note, buoyed by gains in ARADEL (+5.0%), STANBIC (+3.7%) and GTCO (+1.0%). Consequently, the All-Share Index advanced by 0.1% to 100,050.94 points, with the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settling at +2.6% and +33.8%, respectively.
The total volume traded declined by 35.5% to 478.08 million units, valued at NGN22.51 billion, and exchanged in 9,578 deals. ETRANZACT was the most traded stock by volume at 70.23 million units, while TRANSCOHOT was the most traded stock by value at NGN7.42 billion.
Across sectors, the Insurance (+1.6%), Banking (+0.2%) and Oil & Gas (+0.1%) indices posted gains, while the Consumer Goods (-0.2%) index settled lower. Meanwhile, the Industrial Goods index was unchanged.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.9x), as 23 tickers gained relative to 26 losers. WAPIC (+10.0%) and MRS (+10.0%) led the gainers, while CUTIX (-10.0%) and TANTALIZER (-9.7%) posted the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.7% to NGN1,553.19/USD in the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 6bps to 32.8% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Activities in the T-bills secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 25.6%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps), mid (-2bps), and long (-2bps) segments following buying interests in the 79DTM (-2bps), 170DTM (-2bps), and 338DTM (-2bps) bills, respectively. Conversely, the average yield expanded by 13bps to 27.3% in the OMO segment.
Meanwhile, the FGN bond secondary market traded with bearish sentiments as the average yield expanded by 8bps to 19.3%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+29bps) and mid (+1bp) segments driven by profit-taking activities on the APR-2029 (+143bps) and JUL-2030(+42bps) bonds, respectively, but closed flat at the long end.
