EQUITIES
The Nigerian equities market opened the week on a positive note, as gains in ARADEL (+5.1%) and STANBIC (+9.3%) more than offset declines in FIRSTHOLDCO (-8.8%) and ETI (-8.3%), driving the All-Share Index higher by 1bp to 165,384.63 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at 1bp and +6.3%, respectively.
The total volume traded advanced by 11.0% to 762.75 million units, valued at NGN18.41 billion, and exchanged in 55,374 deals. TANTALIZER was the most traded stock by volume at 88.49 million units, while GEREGU was the most traded stock by value at NGN2.78 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative as the Insurance (-2.0%), Banking (-0.6%), Consumer Goods (-0.4%) and Industrial Goods (-0.1%) indices declined while the Oil & Gas (+2.0%) index advanced.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.6x), as 28 tickers gained relative to 44 losers. OMATEK (-10.0%) and UHOMREIT (-10.0%) led the laggards, while UNIVINSURE (+10.0%) and PREMPAINTS (+10.0%) posted the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 4bps to NGN1,391.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 336bps to 23.0%, in the absence of any significant funding pressure.
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 3bps to 18.2%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps), mid (-2bps) and long (-4bps) segments due to the demand for the 52DTM (-3bps), 136DTM (-3bps) and 318DTM (-16bps) bills, respectively. Conversely, the average yield expanded by 7bps to 21.6% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded on a bullish note, as the average yield contracted by 5bps to 16.2%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+3bps) end, due to profit-taking activities on the JUL-2030 (+7bps) bond, but contracted at the mid (-28bps) segment, driven by demand for the JUN-2033 (-81bps) bonds. The average yield remained unchanged at the long end.
