EQUITIES
The domestic equities market recovered from its earlier losses this week, as gains in MTNN (+4.8%), SEPLAT (+9.9%), ARADEL (+7.4%) and TRANSPOWER (+8.2%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 1.6% to 116,786.87 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled higher at +4.5% and +13.5%, respectively.
The total volume of trades declined by 18.7% to 640.08 million units, valued at NGN26.01 billion, and exchanged in 19,727 deals. ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume and value at 149.92 million units and NGN7.21 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive as the Oil & Gas (+7.5%), Banking (+3.3%), Insurance (+2.0%), and Industrial Goods (+0.1%) indices advanced, while the Consumer Goods (-0.2%) index was the sole loser of the day.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.2x), as 36 tickers gained relative to 30 losers. NEM (+10.0%) and BETAGLAS (+10.0%) led the gainers, while ETERNA (-10.0%) and NSLTECH (-9.7%) posted the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 0.1% to NGN1,551.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 2bps to 26.9% 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 3bps to 20.6%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp), mid (-11bps) and long (-1bp) segments, driven by the demand for the 92DTM (-1bp), 176DTM (-68bps) and 232DTM (-2bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 7bps to 26.8% in the OMO segment.
The FGN bond secondary market traded on a quiet note, albeit with a bullish tilt, as the average yield pared by 1bp to 18.5%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield was flat at the short and mid segments but contracted at the long (-2bps) end, driven by the demand for the JUN-2053 (-18bps) bond.
