EQUITIES
The local bourse kicked off the week on a positive note as buying interests in MTNN (+2.4%) and NB (+8.5%) caused a 0.6% increase in the benchmark index to 106,698.50 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns advanced to +1.0% and +3.7%, respectively.
The total volume of trades declined by 0.8% to 569.04 million units, valued at NGN67.06 billion, and exchanged in 18,612 deals. FIRSTHOLDCO was the most traded stock by volume at 106.04 million units, while GTCO was the most traded stock by value at NGN5.56 billion.
Analysing by sectors, the Consumer Goods (+3.0%), Insurance (+2.7%), Oil & Gas (+2.6%) and Industrial Goods (+0.1%) indices advanced while Banking (-1.6%) index declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.2x), as 34 tickers gained relative to 29 losers. BETAGLAS (+10.0%) and CADBURY (+9.9%) led the gainers, while ETI (-9.6%) and MEYER (-6.7%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 1.0% to NGN1,605/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate increased by 13bps to 27.0% in the absence of any significant funding pressures on the system.
The Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 5bps to 21.0%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the mid (-3bps) and long (-7bps) segments, following demand for the 157DTM (-4bps) and 290DTM (-44bps) bills, respectively, while it closed flat at the short end. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 6bps to 26.9% in the OMO segment.
The FGN bond secondary market was quiet, albeit with a bullish undertone, as the average yield contracted by 1bp to 18.7%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp) and mid (-3bps) segments, driven by buying interest in the JUL-2030 (-9bps) and FEB-2031 (-14bps) bonds, respectively, but was unchanged at the long end.
