EQUITIES
Bearish sentiments persisted in the domestic stock market, as sell pressures in DANGCEM (-10.0%) drove the All-Share Index lower by 1.2% to 97,064.42 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns printed -1.5% and +29.8%, respectively.
The total volume of trades declined by 36.1% to 268.39 million units, valued at NGN6.76 billion, and exchanged in 8,565 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume at 37.09 million units, while SEPLAT was the top traded stock by value at NGN2.34 billion.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Industrial Goods (-6.0%) and Consumer Goods (-0.2%) indices declined, while the Oil & Gas (+3.8%%) and Insurance (+2.0%) indices advanced. The Banking index remained unchanged.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.8x), as 28 tickers lost relative to 23 gainers. DANGCEM (-10.0%) and MCNICHOLS (-10.0%) recorded the highest losses of the day, while SEPLAT (+10.0%) and LIVESTOCK (+9.9%) led the gainers.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 0.6% to NGN1,659.26/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 380bps to 33.5% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
The Treasury bills secondary market traded with bearish sentiments as the average yield expanded by 3bps to 22.6%. Across the curve, the average yield expanded at the mid (+14bps) segment following selloffs of the 161DTM (+79bps) bill but declined at the short (-1bp) and long (-2bps) ends due to the demand for the 84DTM (-1bp) and 322DTM (-2bps) bills, respectively. In contrast, the average yield declined by 2bps to 23.8% in the OMO segment.
Activities in the Treasury bond secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded by 16bps to 18.8%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+29bps), mid (+8bps), and long (+13bps) segments due to profit-taking activities on the APR-2029 (+128bps), JUL-2030 (+41bps), and JUN-2038 (+85bps) bonds, respectively.
