EQUITIES
Sentiments in the domestic equities market turned positive as late interest in banking stocks supported the benchmark index. Specifically, the All-Share Index advanced by 0.2% to 21,741.16 points. Meanwhile, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses moderated to -17.1% and -19.0%, respectively.
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The total volume of trades decreased by 28.9% to 330.10 million units, valued at NGN3.57 billion and exchanged in 4,561 deals. GUARANTY was the most traded stock by volume and value at 78.90 million units and NGN1.32 billion, respectively.
Sectoral performance was positive as gains in the Oil and Gas (-0.8%), Insurance (-1.5%), and Industrial Goods (-0.8%) indices masked the declines recorded in the Banking (-9.0%) and Consumer Goods (-3.67%) indices.
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive (1.8x), as 18 tickers gained, relative to 10 losers. NPFMCRFBK (+9.5%) and STANBIC (+9.4%) were the top gainers, while CAVERTON (-10.0%) and CONOIL (-10.0%) recorded the largest losses of the day.
CURRENCY
The naira strengthened by 0.8% and 0.1% at the parallel market and I&E FX window to NGN400/USD and NGN380.75/USD respectively.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
The overnight lending rate contracted by 168bps to 5.3%, supported by the still healthy system liquidity – estimated at NGN307.13 billion.
Trading in the NTB secondary market was mixed as average yield across instruments was flat. However, average yield contracted in the OMO secondary market by 30bps to 16.5%.
The Treasury bond secondary market continued its bearish run, as average yield expanded by 6bps to 12.0%. Across the curve, yields expanded at the mid (+6bps) and long (+21bps) segments of the curve, following sell-offs of the FEB-2028 (+202bps) and JUL-2034 (+58bps) bonds, respectively. Conversely, demand for the APR-2023 (-14bps) bond led to yield contraction at the short end of the curve.
