Trading in the domestic equities market opened the week with a bullish performance as bargain buying activities on ETI (+5.3%), and WAPCO (+2.5%) triggered a 0.1% gain in the All-Share Index to 47,394.53 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to +1.7% and +11.0%, respectively.

Performance across sectors was broadly positive, as the Insurance (+1.0%), Banking (+0.6%), Consumer Goods (+0.3%), and Industrial Goods (+0.2%) indices advanced while the Oil & Gas (-0.2%) index was the sole loser of the day.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.3x) as 19 tickers gained relative to 15 losers. LINKASSURE (+10.0%) and ROYALEX (+9.6%) topped the gainers’ list, while ACADEMY (-9.7%) and RTBRISCOE (-9.6%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.

CURRENCY

The naira depreciated by 0.2% to NGN416.67/USD at the I&E window.

MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME

The overnight lending rate contracted by 267bps to 12.3%, in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.

The NTB secondary market traded with mixed sentiments, although with a bullish tilt, as the average yield pared by 2bps to 3.6%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the mid (-8bps) segment as market participants demanded the 150DTM (-46bps) bill but was unchanged at the short and long ends. Elsewhere, the average yield closed flat at 4.6% in the OMO segment.

Proceedings in the Treasury bond secondary market were bullish, as the average yield declined by 5bps to 10.9%. We highlight that buying activity was spread across the benchmark curve, as the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps), mid (-9bps), and long (-4bps) segments following interests in the APR-2023 (-4bps), FEB-2028 (-11bps), and APR-2049 (-14bps) bonds, respectively.