EQUITIES
Bearish sentiments resurfaced in the Nigerian equities market, as sell pressures on SEPLAT (-10.0%) caused the benchmark index to decline by 0.1% to 111,818.08 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +5.7% and +8.6%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 8.7% to 556.45 million units, valued at NGN17.17 billion, and exchanged in 18,505 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume and value at 82.57 million units and NGN2.86 billion, respectively.
Analysing by sectors, the Consumer Goods (+0.9%) and Banking (+0.3%) indices advanced, while the Oil & Gas (-5.0%) and Insurance (-0.2%) indices declined. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.6x), as 39 tickers gained relative to 24 losers. MBENEFIT (+10.0%) and UPL (+10.0%) led the gainers, while SEPLAT (-10.0%) and LEGENDINT (-10.0%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate appreciated by 0.3% to NGN1,580.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 9bps to 27.0% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
Proceedings in the Treasury bill secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 20.7%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp), mid (-1bp) and long (-3bps) segments, due to buying interest in the 84DTM (-1bp), 175DTM (-1bp) and 280DTM (-10bps) bills, respectively. In contrast, the average yield expanded by 4bps to 26.1% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the Treasury bond secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 7bps to 18.6%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-15bps) and mid (-8bps) segments, driven by the demand for the JUL-2030 (-40bps) and FEB-2031 (-42bps) bonds, respectively. The average yield remained unchanged at the long end.
