EQUITIES
Bearish sentiments persisted in the Nigerian equities market, as sell pressures on TRANSCORP (-8.4%), ZENITHBANK (-2.5%), and GTCO (-1.4%) drove the All-Share Index lower by 0.2% to 144,646.01 points. Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to -6.2% and +40.5%, respectively.
The total volume of trades increased by 134.1% to 892.53 million units, valued at NGN23.54 billion, and exchanged in 20,225 deals. ACCESSCORP was the most traded stock by volume and value at 488.36 million units and NGN10.57 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was mixed as the Insurance (-1.4%), Banking (-1.2%), and Oil & Gas (-0.2%) indices closed lower, while the Consumer Goods (+0.1%) index inched higher. The Industrial Goods index remained unchanged.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.4x), as 38 tickers lost relative to 16 gainers. UNIVINSURE (-10.0%) and ABCTRANS (-10.0%) led the laggards, while NCR (+9.9%) and CAVERTON (+9.7%) posted the most significant gains of the day.
CURRENCY
The official FX rate depreciated by 0.3% to NGN1,455.00/USD.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 18bps to 24.9% in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were quiet as the average yield remained unchanged at 16.4%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-1bp) and mid (-1bp) segments, driven by the demand for the 92DTM (-1bps) and 169DTM (-1bps) bills, respectively, but expanded at the long (+1bp) end, due to profit-taking activities on the 323DTM (+22bps) bill. Meanwhile, the average yield contracted by 18bps to 21.5% in the OMO segment.
Elsewhere, the FGN bond secondary market traded on a calm note as the average yield remained unchanged at 15.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (-1bps) end, reflecting the sell-off of the FEB-2031 (+6bps) bond but remained unchanged at the mid and long segments.
