EQUITIES
Bearish sentiments resurfaced in the Nigerian stock market as sell-pressures on MTNN (-7.9%) caused the All-Share Index to decline by 0.3% to close at 96,203.65 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to -1.6% and +28.7%, respectively.
The total trading volume increased by 0.8% to 446.61 million units, valued at NGN4.53 billion, exchanged in 10,148 deals. UNIVINSURE was the most traded stock by volume at 52.60 million units, while OANDO was the most traded stock by value at NGN620.60 billion.
From a sectoral perspective, the Insurance (+1.9%), Banking (+0.6%), Oil & Gas (+0.5%), and Consumer Goods (+0.2%) indices posted gains, while the Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (2.4x), as 34 tickers gained relative to 14 losers. IMG (+10.0%) and CHAMS (+10.0%) topped the gainers’ list, while NEIMETH (-9.1%) and TANTALIZER (-8.6%) recorded the highest losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.8% to NGN1,606.56/USD in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 295bps to 23.4% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Trading in the NTB secondary market remained bullish, as the average yield contracted by 12bps to 21.2%. Across the curve, the average yield dipped at the short (-1bp), mid (-1bp), and long (-25bps) segments driven by bargain hunting in the 87DTM (-1bp), 164DTM (-2bps), and 213DTM (-260bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield declined by 45bps to 24.0% in the OMO segment.
Likewise, the FGN bonds secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 5bps to 19.1%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield closed flat at the short and mid segments but declined at the long (-10bps) end due to demand for the JUN-2038 (-95bps) bond.