EQUITIES
Activities in the Nigerian equities market kicked off the week on a negative note, underpinned by losses in AIRTELAFRI (-2.5%). As a result, the All-Share index declined by 0.4% to close at 99,304.12 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-date and Year-to-Date returns settled at +0.0% and +32.8%, respectively.
The total trading volume increased by 57.7% to 973.62 million units, valued at NGN19.32 billion, and exchanged in 9,941 deals. FBNH was the most traded stock by volume and value at 627.60 million units and NGN13.45 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Banking (-1.0%), Consumer Goods (-0.4%), and Industrial Goods (-0.2%) indices recorded losses, while the Oil & Gas index closed flat. The Insurance (+1.1%) index was the sole gainer of the day.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.7x), as 26 tickers lost relative to 19 gainers. INTBREW (-10.0%) and DEAPCAP (-8.9%) topped the losers’ list, while NSLTECH (+10.0%) and VFDGROUP (+9.9%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.3% to NGN1,490.20/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET AND FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate declined by 201bps to 24.0% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were bullish as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 21.9%. Across the curve, the average yield pared at the short (-3bps), mid (-3bps) and long (-5bps) segments following interests in the 80DTM (-3bps), 171DTM (-4bps) and 332DTM (-5bps) bills. Meanwhile, the average yield expanded by 57bps to 22.3% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, proceedings in the FGN bond secondary market were mixed but with a bearish bias, as the average yield expanded by 1bp to 18.7%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield inched higher at the short end (+2bps), driven by sell pressures on the MAR-2025 (+7bps) bond but was unchanged at the mid and long segments.
