EQUITIES
The local bourse opened the week on a bullish note, as buying interest in ARADEL (+7.2%), BUACEMENT (+2.5%), GTCO (+5.1%), and UBA (+6.6%) drove the All-Share Index up by 1.7% to 159,215.48 points. Sequentially, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at +2.3%.
The total volume traded increased by 58.1% to 695.65 billion units, valued at NGN18.57 billion, and exchanged in 56,632 deals. TANTALIZER was the most traded stock by volume at 71.75 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value at NGN3.51 billion.
Analysing by sectors, the Insurance (+5.0%), Banking (+4.7%), Oil & Gas (+3.8%), Consumer Goods (+2.1%) and Industrial Goods (+1.0%) indices advanced.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (10.1x), as 71 tickers gained, while 7 tickers lost. CADBURY (+10.0%) and CHAMPION (+10.0%) led the gainers, while JULI (-9.9%) and IKEJAHOTEL (-9.19) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate appreciated by 0.3% to NGN1,429.85/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 4bps to 22.7% in the absence of funding pressures on the system.
The NTB secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 21bps to 17.5%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-4bp), mid (-11bps) and long (-35bps) segments, driven by the demand for the 73DTM (-11bps), 150DTM (-23bps) and 304DTM (-67bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 20bps to 21.7% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded with bearish sentiments as the average yield expanded by 11bps to 16.5%. Across the curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+10bps), mid (+15bps) and long (+9bps) segments, due to profit-taking activities on the FEB-2031 (+28bps), JUL-2034 (+37bps) and JAN-2042 (+25bps) bonds, respectively.
