EQUITIES
The Nigerian equities market traded on a positive note as bargain hunting in ARADEL (+10.0%) following the release of their 2024FY unaudited financial statements and gains in STANBIC (+9.9%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 0.6% to 104,549.74 points. As a result, the Year-to-Date return inched higher to +1.6%.
The total volume of trades declined by 22.2% to 421.62 million units, valued at NGN15.00 billion, and exchanged in 16,256 deals. UNIVINSURE was the most traded stock by volume at 33.62 million units, while ARADEL was the most traded stock by value at NGN6.27 billion.
On sectors, the Oil & Gas (+3.3%), Consumer Goods (+0.8%) and Banking (+0.8%) indices advanced, while the Insurance (-1.7%) index declined. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.7x), as 36 tickers lost relative to 26 gainers. MCNICHOLS (-10.0%) and CAVERTON (-10.0%) posted the most significant losses of the day, while ARADEL (+10.0%) and CHELLARAM (+10.0%) led the gainers.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 0.8% to NGN1,510.72/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 50bps to 27.5% following debits for the FGN bond PMA (NGN601.04 billion).
Proceedings in the Treasury bills secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 133bps to 23.4%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-93bps), mid (-259bps) and long (-96bps) segments, driven by the demand for the 85DTM (-298bps), 127DTM (-389bps) and 190DTM (-239bps) bills, respectively. Meanwhile, the average yield remained unchanged at 27.5% in the OMO segment.
The Treasury bond secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 20.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield declined at the short (-13bps) end due to buying interest in the JAN-2026 (-68bps) bond but advanced at the long (+3bps) end following selloffs of the JAN-2042 (+16bps) bond. The average yield remained unchanged at the mid segment.
