EQUITIES
The bears continued to dominate the domestic bourse as profit-taking activities in TRANSCORP (-7.8%), ARADEL -2.4%) and UBA (-3.1%) caused a 0.4% decline in the All-Share Index to 104,915.13 points. As a result, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -2.7% and +1.9%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased significantly by 297.5% to 1.37 billion units, valued at NGN12.37 billion, and exchanged in 12,012 deals. SOVRENINS was the most traded stock by volume at 1.01 billion units, while TRANSPOWER was the most traded stock by value at NGN3.42 billion.
Sectoral performance was negative, as the Insurance (-1.8%), Banking (-1.4%), Oil & Gas (-1.3%), and Consumer Goods (-0.1%) indices declined. The Industrial Goods index remained unchanged.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.4x), as 13 tickers lost relative to 37 gainers. LIVESTOCK (-10.0%) and ETRANZACT (-9.4%) recorded the most significant loss of the day, while JBERGER (+8.5%) and OMATEK (+6.2%) topped the gainers’ list.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 0.1% to NGN1,540.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 2bps to 32.9% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
The Nigerian treasury bills secondary market traded on a calm note, albeit with a bullish undertone, as the average yield contracted by 1bp to 19.1%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp), mid (-1bp) and long (-1bp) segments, driven by demand for the 78DTM (-1bp), 176DTM (-1bp) and 337DTM (-1bp) bills, respectively. Conversely, the average yield increased by 12bps to 22.5% in the OMO segment.
Activities in the Treasury bond secondary market were quiet with a bearish tilt, as the average yield expanded by 1bp to 18.5%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps) end following the demand for the JUL-2030 (-14bps) bond but expanded at the mid (+6bps) segment due to the sell-off of the JUN-2033 (+28bps) bond. The average yield remained unchanged at the long end.
