The Nigerian equities extended gains from Wednesday’s session as the benchmark Index added 105 bps on Thursday to close at 98,116.27 points putting the index on track for a weekly gain.
Buying activity in MTN Nigeria Plc (+10.00%), GTCO (+2.22%) and ZENITHBANK (+2.70%) drove the market’s positive performance, despite declines in WAPCO (-0.54%) and DANGSUGAR (-1.88%).
Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 31.22 percent, while the market capitalisation gained N577.72 billion to close at N55.71 trillion.
Analysis of Thursday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 18.45 percent.
A total of 791.78 million shares valued at N15.13 billion were exchanged in 9,059 deals. NEM (+0.00%) led the volume chart with 187.51 million units traded while GTCO for the second time in a row led the value chart in deals worth N5.06 billion.
Market breadth closed positive at a 1.78-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. MTNN (+10.00%) topped thirty-one (31) others on the gainer’s log while UCAP (-9.94%) led seventeen (17) others on the laggard’s table.
The naira appreciated by 0.2 percent to N1, 593.62/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market.
In the money market, overnight lending rate expanded by 587bps to 31.7 percent in the absence of any significant inflows into the system.
The Treasury bills secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 6bps to 26.0 percent.
Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp), mid (-2bps), and long (-11bps) segments due to participants’ demand for the 91DTM (-2bps), 182DTM (-2bps), and 245DTM (-87bps) bills, respectively.
Similarly, the average yield contracted by 2bps to 26.1 percent in the OMO segment.
Conversely, the Treasury bonds secondary market closed on a bearish note, as the average yield advanced by 14bps to 19.8 percent.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield increased at the short (+30bps) and mid (+34bps) segments as investors took profits off the APR-2029 (+96bps) and JUL-2030 (+60bps) bonds, respectively but pared at the long (-1bp) end following buying interest in JUN-2038 (-11bps) bond.
