EQUITIES
The domestic equities market opened the second half of the year on a negative note, as sell pressures on DANGCEM (-3.4%), GTCO (-1.2%) and ZENITHBANK (-1.6%) drove the All-Share Index lower by 0.2% to 119,741.23 points. As a result, the Year-to-Date returns moderated to +16.4%.
The total volume traded decreased by 74.1% to 527.08 million units, valued at NGN11.28 billion, and exchanged in 21,546 deals. ELLAHLAKES was the most traded stock by volume at 46.05 million units, while NB was the most traded stock by value at NGN1.75 billion.
On sectors, performance was mixed, as the Industrial Goods (-3.2%), Insurance (-2.2%) and Oil & Gas (-1.9%) indices declined, while the Consumer Goods (+31.6%) and Banking (+18.0%) indices advanced.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (2.0x), as 45 tickers gained relative to 23 losers. MCNICHOLS (+10.0%) and RTBRISCOE (+10.0%) led the gainers, while UPL (-10.0%) and SCOA (-9.8%) posted the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 0.6% to NGN1,535.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 21bps to 27.0% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Proceedings in the Treasury bill secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 15bps to 20.1%. Across the curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+2bps) end, due to sell pressures on the 9DTM (+31bps) bill, but contracted at the mid (-20bps) and long (-17bps) segments, driven by the demand for the 191DTM (-91bps) and 205DTM (-79bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 31bps to 26.1% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded on a bullish note, as the average yield contracted by 11bps to 18.0%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-15bps), mid (-12bps) and long (-7bps) segments, driven by the demand for the APR-2029 (-43bps), FEB-2031 (-33bps) and JUN-2038 (-45bps) bonds, respectively.
