EQUITIES
Bearish sentiments resurfaced in the Nigerian equities market, halting a three-day winning streak, as sell-offs in MTNN (-2.7%) and ZENITHBANK (-1.1%) dragged the All-Share Index down by 0.1% to 105,475.38 points. Sequentially, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled lower at -2.2% and +2.5%, respectively.
The total volume of trade increased by 15.49x to 5.76 billion units, valued at NGN342.61 billion, and exchanged in 10,908 deals. WAPCO was the most traded stock by volume and value at 3.53 billion units and NGN4.47 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive as the Insurance (+2.6%), Consumer Goods (+0.4%), and Banking (+0.1%) indices closed higher. The Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices remained unchanged.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.8x), as 30 tickers gained relative to 17 losers. MBENEFIT (+10.0%) and ROYALEX (+9.9%) led the gainers, while UHOMREIT (-9.9%) and ABCTRANS (-9.8%) posted the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 0.5% to NGN1,537.17/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 450bps to 32.8% following debits for the FGN bond PMA (NGN271.23 billion).
Activities in the NTB secondary market were calm, albeit with a bullish undertone, as the average yield contracted by 1bp to 19.2%. Across the curve, the average yield pared at the short (-1bp), mid (-1bp), and long (-1bp) segments, driven by the demand for the 92DTM (-1bp), 169DTM (-1bp), and 330DTM (-1bp) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield declined by 1bp to 22.5% in the OMO segment.
Meanwhile, trading in the Treasury bond secondary market was quiet, as the average yield remained unchanged at 18.5%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield closed flat at the short, mid and long segments.
