EQUITIES
The domestic bourse carried on last week’s bearish performance, as sell pressures on OANDO (-9.9%), MTNN (-2.8%) and ARADEL (-10.0%) drove the All-Share Index down by 0.5% to 96,907.98 points. Thus, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.8% and +29.6%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 34.7% to 1.20 billion units, valued at NGN13.44 billion, and exchanged in 10,162 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume and value at 240.76 million units and NGN7.29 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Insurance (-0.8%) and Oil & Gas (-0.2%) indices settled lower, while the Banking (+1.1%) and Consumer Goods (+0.2%) indices advanced. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.5x), as 29 tickers lost relative to 15 gainers. CAVERTON (-10.0%) and ARADEL (-10.0%) led the losers, while JOHNHOLT (+10.0%) and UBA (+10.0%) posted the most notable gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.6% to NGN1,676.90/USD in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 2bps to 19.7% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
The T-bills secondary market traded on a bullish note, as the average yield contracted by 27bps to 24.0%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-4bps), mid (-51bps), and long (-25bps) segments following buying interests in the 80DTM (-10bps), 171DTM (-144bps), and 185DTM (-150bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield declined by 6bps to 26.2% in the OMO segment.
Proceedings in the Treasury bond secondary market were bullish, as the average yield declined by 3bps to 19.1%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield declined at the short (-13bps) end, driven by demand for the MAR-2025 (-70bps) bill, but remained unchanged at the mid and long segments.
