EQUITIES
Bearish sentiment returned to the Nigerian equities market, halting a six-day winning streak, as profit-taking activities in BUAFOODS (-6.5%) dragged the All-Share Index lower by 0.4% to 120,772.68 points. Consequently, the month-to-date and year-to-date returns moderated to +8.1% and +17.4%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 3.6% to 892.97 million units, valued at NGN18.23 billion, and exchanged in 25,375 deals. ELLAHLAKES was the most traded stock by volume at 113.50 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value at NGN3.47 billion.
Sectoral performance was mixed as the Consumer Goods (-1.4%), Oil & Gas (-1.3%) and Banking (-0.6%) indices closed lower, while the Industrial Goods (+2.1%) and Insurance (+1.1%) indices advanced.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.8x), as 37 tickers lost relative to 31 gainers. THOMASWY (-10.0%) and NAHCO (-10.0%) posted the most significant losses of the day, while UNILEVER (+10.0%) and NEIMETH (+9.9%) led the gainers.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 0.6% to NGN1,549.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 565bps to 27.0% following inflows from NTB maturities (NGN283.79 billion).
The Treasury bills secondary market traded on a calm note, as the average yield remained unchanged at 20.3%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-8bps) and long (-1bp) ends, driven by demand for the 91DTM (-55bps) and 343DTM (-5bps) bills, respectively, but expanded at the mid (+10bps) segment due to profit-taking activities on the 147DTM (+87bps) bill. Meanwhile, the average yield contracted by 9bps to 26.5% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 18.2%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-3bps) and mid (-5bps) segments, as market participants demanded the JUL-2030 (-17bps) and FEB-2031 (-25bps) bonds, respectively. The average yield closed flat at the long end.
