EQUITIES
The domestic bourse started the week’s trading on a bearish note following sell pressures in ZENITHBANK (-3.6%) and FBNH (-2.6%). Consequently, the NGX ASI declined by 0.1% to close at 98,132.15 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns printed -1.9% and +31.2%, respectively.
The total volume of trades declined by 65.3% to 379.13 million units, valued at NGN8.71 billion, and exchanged in 10,096 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume at 69.06 million units, while SEPLAT was the most traded stock by value at NGN2.71 billion, respectively.
On sectors, the Banking (-1.0%) and Consumer Goods (-0.1%) indices posted losses, while the Oil & Gas (+1.3%) and Insurance (+0.2%) indices posted gains. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed (1.0x), as an equal number of ticker (21) gained and lost. CAVERTON (-10.0%) and WAPIC (-9.3%) recorded the highest losses of the day, while AFRIPRUD (+10.0%) and CUTIX (+9.9%) topped the gainers’ list.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.1% to NGN1,611.40/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 63bps to 26.0% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Proceedings in the Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield dipped by 3bps to 25.2%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-4bps) and long (-5bps) ends due to interests in the 87DTM (-4bps) and 255DTM (-7bps) bill, respectively. Meanwhile, the average yield expanded at the mid (+3bps) segment, driven by profit-taking activities in the 101DTM (+41bps) bill. Elsewhere, the average yield declined by 4bps to 24.9% in the OMO segment.
The Treasury bond secondary market traded on a bearish note, as the average yield advanced by 16bps at 19.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield increased at the short (+26bps), mid (+8bps) and long (+14bps) segments, as investors sold off the APR-2029 (+125bps), JUL-2030 (+40bps) and JUL-2038 (+126bps) bonds, respectively.
