EQUITIES
The Nigerian equities market sustained its bullish momentum, driven by bargain hunting in MTNN (+10.0%) following the NCC’s approval of a 50.0% tariff hike for telecommunication services. As a result, the All-Share Index advanced by 0.8% to close at 103,137.99 points, pushing the Year-to-Date return to +0.2%.
However, the total volume of trades declined by 64.8% to 440.32 million units, valued at NGN11.97 billion, and exchanged in 13,087 deals. LASACO was the most traded stock by volume at 108.04 million units, while SEPLAT was the most traded stock by value at NGN3.54 billion.
On sectors, the Insurance (+1.0%) and Banking (+0.3%) indices advanced, while the Consumer Goods (-0.4%) and Oil & Gas (-0.4%) indices settled lower. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.1x), as 29 tickers gained relative to 27 losers. MTNN (+10.0%) and SCOA (+9.9%) led the gainers, while NSLTECH (-9.9%) and ABBEYBDS (-9.1%) posted the most significant losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira depreciated by 0.2% to NGN1,552.78/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 175bps to 31.0% following inflows from FGN bond coupon payments (NGN91.09 billion).
Proceedings in the Treasury bills secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 2bps to 25.1%. Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps) and long (-2bps) ends, driven by the demand for the 65DTM (-2bps) and 303DTM (-6bps) bills, respectively, but remained unchanged at the mid segment. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 6bps to 28.2% in the OMO segment.
In contrast, the Treasury bond secondary market traded with bearish sentiments, as the average yield expanded by 24bps to 20.0%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield advanced at the short (+33bps), mid (+30bps) and long (+15bps) segments, following selloffs of the FEB-2028 (+84bps), APR-2032 (+81bps) and MAR-2035 (+139bps) bonds, respectively.
