EQUITIES
The local bourse ended today’s session on a positive note as gains in OANDO (+9.9%), and STANBIC (+6.7%) drove the ASI higher by 0.1% to close at 95,895.92 points. Consequently, the MTD and YTD returns printed -1.9% and +28.3%, respectively.
The total trading volume declined by 71.4% to 1.01 billion units, valued at NGN7.69 billion, and exchanged in 8,295 deals. JAIZBANK was the most traded stock by volume and value at 651.29 million units and NGN1.50 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Banking (+0.4%), Oil & Gas (+0.4%) and Insurance (+0.2%) indices advanced, while the Consumer Goods (-0.1%) index declined. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.9x), as 22 tickers lost relative to 19 gainers. THOMASWY (-9.7%) and OMATEK (-6.9%) topped the losers’ list, while LEARNAFRICA (+9.9%) and OANDO (+9.9%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.8% to NGN1,592.06/USD in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate expanded by 499bps to 34.4% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
Trading in the Treasury bills secondary market remained bullish, as the average yield contracted by 14bps to 23.0%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp) and long (-31bps) ends due to buying interest in the 79DTM (-1bp) and 198DTM (-200bps) bills but expanded in the mid (+4bps) segment as players sold off the 170DTM (+36bps) bill. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 2bps to 25.8% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the Treasury bonds secondary market traded on a calm note albeit with a bearish tilt, as the average yield expanded slightly by 1bp to 19.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield increased at the short (+1bp) and mid (+2bps) segments due to the selloff of the MAR-2025 (+4bps) and FEB-2031 (+5bps) bonds, respectively but closed flat at the long end.
