EQUITIES
Bullish sentiments persisted in the local bourse today as gains in SEPLAT (+10.0%), OKOMUOIL (+10.0%), and WAPCO (+3.0%) drove a 0.4% increase in the All-Share Index to 160,591.76 points. As a result, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns both settled at +3.2%.
The total volume of trades advanced by 87.4% to 1.42 billion units, valued at NGN20.30 billion, and exchanged in 48,789 deals. UNIVINSURE was the most traded stock by volume at 804.11 million units while SEPLAT was the most traded stock by value at NGN 3.50 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as the Oil & Gas (+3.9%), Insurance (+1.1%), Industrial Goods (+0.5%), and Consumer Goods (+0.5%) indices advanced, while the Banking (-0.1%) index declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.9x), as 33 tickers gained relative to 38 losers. UNIONDICON (+10.0%) and OKOMUOIL (+10.0%) topped the gainers, while CADBURY (-10.0%) and AUSTINLAZ (-9.9%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate appreciated by 0.8% to NGN1,418.07/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 8bps to 22.8% 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 1bp to 17.7%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp), mid (-1bp) and long (-1bp) segments, driven by the demand for the 78DTM (-1bp),162DTM (-1bp) and 344DTM (-1bp) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 1bp to 21.5% in the OMO segment.
The Treasury bond secondary market closed on a quiet note, as the average yield remained unchanged at 16.5%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the mid (+8bps) segment, driven by the selloff of the JUN-2033 (+33bps) bond, but contracted at the long (-5bps) end, due to the demand for the MAR-2036 (-41bps) bond. The average yield remained unchanged at the short end.
Cordros
