EQUITIES
Profit-taking activities continued today in the Nigerian equities market, with TRANSCORP (-7.4%), ACCESSCORP (-4.7%) and BUACEMENT (-1.0%) weighing down the bourse. Consequently, the ASI ended the session 0.7% lower at 98,058.07 points. Thus, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.5% and +31.1%, respectively.
The total volume traded increased by 15.5% to 399.32 million units, valued at NGN8.93 billion, and exchanged in 9,547 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume and value at 90.41 million units and NGN2.61 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was mixed as the Banking (-1.5%) and Industrial Goods (-0.3%) indices declined, while the Insurance (+0.2%) index advanced. The Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.8x), as 32 tickers lost relative to 24 gainers. CADBURY (-9.9%) and ACADEMY (-9.9%) led the losers, while NNFM (+10.0%) and LIVESTOCK (+7.7%) posted the highest gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira appreciated by 2.5% to NGN1,630.45/USD in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 78bps to 27.0% following inflows from OMO repayments (NGN254.25 billion).
Trading in the Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted 2bps to 24.1%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp), mid (-2bps) and long (-2bps) segments due to demand for the 86DTM (-1bp), 177DTM (-2bps) and 331DTM (-2bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield dipped by 2bps to 26.0% in the OMO segment.
Activities in the FGN bond secondary market were quiet as the average yield closed flat at 19.1%.
