EQUITIES
The Nigerian stock market reversed yesterday’s gains as profit-taking activities in FBNH (-9.9%) triggered a 0.2% decline in the benchmark index. As a result, the NGX ASI closed at 98,003.75 points, with the MTD and YTD returns moderating to -1.5% and +31.1%, respectively.
The total volume traded increased by 30.9% to 473.09 million units, valued at NGN11.36 billion, and exchanged in 9,848 deals. JAPAULGOLD was the most traded stock by volume at 106.66 million units, while DANGCEM was the most traded stock by value at NGN4.84 billion.
Sectoral performance was bearish as the Banking (-0.6%), Insurance (-0.6%), Consumer Goods (-0.3%), Oil & Gas (-0.1%), and Industrial Goods (-0.1%) indices declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed (1.0x), as 25 tickers lost relative to 24 gainers. HONYFLOUR (-10.0%) and FBNH (-9.9%) topped the losers’ list, while ABCTRANS (+10.0%) and MCNICHOLS (+10.0%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.3% to NGN1,544.02/USD in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 27bps to 31.8% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
Bearish sentiments persisted in the T-bills secondary market, as the average yield expanded by 24bps to 20.7%. Across the curve, the average yield increased at the short (+45bps), mid (+42bps), and long (+2bps) segments following profit-taking activities on the 77DTM (+181bps), 112DTM (+173bps), and 189DTM (+42bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield expanded by 14bps to 23.9% in the OMO segment.
Conversely, the FGN bond secondary market was bullish as the average yield contracted by 10bps to 18.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield declined at the short (-29bps) and mid (-9bps) segments due to investors interests in the APR-2029 (-145bps) and JUL-2030 (-46bps) bonds, respectively. Meanwhile, the average yield closed flat at the long end.
