EQUITIES
The domestic equities market commenced the week on a bearish note, as the CBN’s recent forbearance directive triggered broad-based selloffs across the banking sector. Consequently, losses in ZENITHBANK (-6.4%), UBA (-5.7%), and ACCESSCORP (-8.3%) dragged the All-Share Index down by 0.2% to 115,258.77 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +3.2% and +12.0%, respectively.
The total volume of trades declined by 22.7% to 721.75 million units, valued at NGN22.01 billion, and exchanged in 22,100 deals. ACCESSCORP was the most traded stock by volume at 92.70 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value at NGN3.56 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Banking (-4.0%), Oil & Gas (-0.9%) and Insurance (-.0.5%) indices declined while the Consumer Goods (+2.0%) index advanced. The Industrial Goods index remained unchanged.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.5x), as 43 tickers lost relative to 20 gainers. NNFM (-10.0%) and CILEASING (-9.7%) led the losers, while GUINEAINS (+10.0%) and ELLAHLAKES (+9.9%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate appreciated by 0.9% to NGN1,543.50/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 4bps to 27.0% following OMO sales from the CBN.
Proceedings in the Treasury bill secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 20.6%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-4bps), mid (-6bps) and long (-3bps) segments, driven by the demand for the 87DTM (-5bps), 178DTM (-6bps) and 339DTM (-8bps) bills, respectively. Meanwhile, the average yield expanded by 6bps to 26.0% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded on a bearish note, as the average yield expanded by 5bps to 18.5%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+1bp), mid (+1bp) and long (+10bps) segments, driven by selloffs in the FEB-2028 (+2bps), MAR-2035 (+1bp) and JUL-2045 (+79bps) bonds, respectively.
