EQUITIES
Activities in the Nigerian equities market sustained this week’s negative momentum as investors took profits off OANDO (-9.9%) and DANGSUGAR (-3.5%) stocks. As a result, the NGX ASI dipped by 0.2% to close at 97,100.36 points, with the MTD and YTD returns settling at -0.7% and +29.9%, respectively.
The total volume traded decreased by 14.0% to 271.26 million units, valued at NGN3.52 billion, and exchanged in 7,233 deals. VERITASKAP was the most traded stock by volume at 33.38 million units, while GTCO was the most traded stock by value at NGN725.23 million.
Analysing by sector, the Oil and Gas (+2.1%) and Insurance (+0.4%) indices inched higher, while the Banking and Industrial Goods indices closed flat. Meanwhile, the Consumer Goods (-0.6%) index was the sole loser of the day.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.5x), as 31 tickers lost relative to 14 gainers. OANDO (-9.9%) and ABCTRANS (-9.5%) topped the losers’ list, while NEIMETH (+9.6%) and TOTAL (+8.8%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 1.4% to NGN1,564.48/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 184bps to 33.2% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
The Treasury bills secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 15bps to 25.3%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp), mid (-12bps), and long (-26bps) segments following buying interests in the 84DTM (-2bps), 175DTM (-70bps), and 238DTM (-215bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 29bps to 25.9% in the OMO segment.
The Treasury bonds secondary market closed on a bullish note, as the average yield declined by 12bps to 19.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield dipped at the short (-36bps) and long (-8bps) ends driven by demand for APR-2029 (-128bps) and JUN-2038 (-45bps) bonds, respectively, but advanced at the mid (+4bps) segment due to sell-offs on the APR-2032 (+45bps) bond.
