EQUITIES
The Nigerian stock market continued its descent as losses in ARADEL (-10.0%) and TRANSCORP (-2.0%) caused a 0.4% decline in the benchmark index to 97,651.23 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.9% and +30.6%, respectively.
The total volume traded increased by 37.8% to 508.06 million units, valued at NGN9.20 billion, and exchanged in 8,923 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume and value at 74.26 million units and NGN2.20 billion, respectively.
Analysing by sectors, the Industrial Goods (-0.1%) and Consumer Goods (-0.1%) indices declined, while the Oil & Gas (+1.3%), Insurance (+1.1%), and Banking (+0.3%) indices advanced.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.9x), as 25 tickers lost relative to 23 gainers. VERITASKAP (-10.0%) and ARADEL (-10.0%) led the losers, while SUNUASSUR (+10.0%) and UPL (+9.7%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 2.7% to NGN1,675.49/USD in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 355bps to 21.5% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Trading in the Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield declined by 2bps to 24.1%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp), mid (-2bps), and long (-2bps) segments due to interest in the 84DTM (-1bp), 175DTM (-2bps), and 329DTM (-2bps) bills, respectively. Conversely, the average yield advanced by 11bps to 26.1% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 19.1%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield declined at the mid (-6bps) segment following demand for the JUN-2033 (-14bps) bond but was flat at the short and long ends.
