EQUITIES
The bulls continued to dominate the domestic bourse as bargain hunting activities in FBNH (+9.6%), GTCO (+3.2) and ACCESSCORP (+6.3%) spurred a 0.5% increase in the benchmark index. As a result, the All-Share Index closed at 105,324.89 points, with the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settling at +0.8% and +2.3%, respectively.
The total volume of trade significantly increased by 124.1% to 1.06 billion units, valued at NGN28.81 billion, and exchanged in 15,080 deals. ACCESSCORP was the most traded stock by both volume and value at 473.22 million units and NGN12.57 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Banking (+3.2%), Oil & Gas (+0.3%) and Industrial Goods (+0.1%) indices inched higher, while the Insurance (-0.7%) and Consumer Goods (-0.4%) indices declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.9x), as 37 tickers gained relative to 19 losers. GUINEAINS (+10.0%) and ETERNA (+10.0%) recorded the most significant gains of the day, while MAYBAKER (-9.9%) and ACADEMY (-9.3%) topped the losers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.1% to NGN1,499.76/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 342bps to 32.0% in the absence of any funding pressure on the system.
The Nigerian treasury bills secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 7bps to 23.2%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp), mid (-1bp) and long (-12bps) segments, driven by demand for the 15DTM (-2bps), 169DTM (-1bp) and 260DTM (-134bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 7bps to 27.3% in the OMO segment.
Similarly, the Treasury bond secondary market closed on a bullish note, as the average yield declined by 2bps to 20.2%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp) and mid (-6bps) segments following buying activities on the FEB-2028 (-17bps) and FEB-2031 (-17bps) bonds, respectively but remained unchanged at the long end.
