EQUITIES
The domestic equities market closed the first trading session of the week on a bearish note, as profit-taking activities in WAPCO (-5.4%), ZENITHBANK (-2.4%), UBA (-2.9%) and OANDO (-6.3%) drove the All-Share Index lower by 0.4% to 139,722.19 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.4% and +35.8%, respectively.
The total volume traded declined by 6.2% to 407.98 million units, valued at NGN14.78 billion, and exchanged in 33,859 deals. FCMB was the most traded stock by volume at 55.84 million units, while ARADEL was the most traded stock by value at NGN5.31 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative as the Banking (-1.1%), Industrial Goods (-0.9%), Oil & Gas (-0.5%) and Insurance (-0.1%) indices declined, while the Consumer Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.5x), as 15 tickers gained relative to 32 losers. ELLAHLAKES (-10.0%) and ETERNA (-10.0%) led the laggards, while SOVRENINS (+10.0%) and SCOA (+9.8%) posted the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate appreciated by 0.2% to NGN1,531.50/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 7bps to 26.9%, in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
The NTB secondary market traded on a bullish note as the average yield contracted by 3bps to 18.2%.
Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps), mid (-3bps) and long (- 3bps) segments, driven by the demand for the 66DTM (-3bps), 157DTM (-3bps) and 339DTM (-4bps) bills, respectively. Conversely, the average yield expanded by 1bp to 25.5% in the OMO segment.
The FGN bond secondary market traded on a quiet note as the average yield remained unchanged at 16.9%.
