At the close of Wednesday’s trade, the Nigerian equities market reversed its previous gains, as the All-Share Index dipped by 0.32 percent to settle at 96,203.65 points.
This decline came despite a stronger showing from gainers, with 35 stocks advancing compared to just 14 losers.
Key decliners included NEIMETH (-9.09%), TANTALIZER (-8.64%), MTNN (- 7.91%), THOMAS WY (-7.06%), and JAIZBANK (-6.25%), which faced significant downward pressure on their share prices. Consequently, the market capitalization of listed equities fell by 0.32 percent, closing at N55.26 trillion, erasing N176 billion from investors’ portfolios.
Despite the overall market downturn, sectoral performance remained predominantly positive. The Banking, Insurance, Consumer Goods, and Oil/Gas indices recorded gains of 0.62 percent, 1.87 percent, 0.16 percent, and 0.53 percent, respectively, while the Industrial Goods index posted a marginal decline of 0.01 percent.
Trading activity on the Exchange reflected a mixed trend: the total number of deals and traded volume increased by 19.49 percent and 0.78 percent to 10,148 deals and 446.61 million units, respectively, whereas the total traded value declined by 19.59 percent to N4.53 billion. UNIVINSURE emerged as the most actively traded stock by volume, with 52.60 million units exchanged in 135 deals, while OANDO led in traded value, reaching N620 million.
In the money market, NIBOR rates declined across tenors, reflecting system liquidity. The Overnight NIBOR notably dropped by 458bps to 20.67 percent on Wednesday, as banks with excess liquidity sought lower borrowing rates. Likewise, key money market rates such as the Open Repo Rate (OPR) and Overnight Rate (O/N) nosedived to conclude at 22.73 percent and 23.40 percent, respectively. The Nigerian Interbank Treasury Bills True Yield (NITTY) showed a downward trend across maturities.
Meanwhile, the secondary market for Nigerian Treasury Bills experienced bullish momentum, resulting in a 0.01 percent decrease in the average yield, bringing it down to 19.00 percent.
In the secondary market for FGN Bonds, trading activity pointed towards bullish sentiment, with the average yield decreasing by 6bps to close at 19.37 percent. Yield reductions of 95bps and 79bps were recorded in the JUN-38 and MAY-33 FGN bonds, causing the average yield to decline. In the Nigerian sovereign Eurobonds market, positive investor sentiment across the yield curve drove the average yield down by 0.09 percent to 9.86 percent.
In the foreign exchange market, the Naira weakened against the greenback, trading at ₦1,606.56 per dollar in the official market, 0.77 percent depreciation from the previous close. However, In the parallel market, the naira gained 0.31% to close at ₦1,605 per dollar.
