July is off to a bearish start as investors sentiment dwindles, with sell-offs evident across major sectors in the market.
The Nigerian Equities market recorded a decline in the All Share Index, by 0.04 percent to conclude at 100,020.83 points, as the bears (28) outnumbered the bulls (20) on the Exchange. As a result, the market capitalization of listed equities declined by 0.04 percent to N56.58 trillion, as equity investors suffered a loss of N20.74 billion at the close of the session on Monday.
Noteworthy decliners for the day include ETRANZACT, FIDSON, CORNERST, LASACO, and UPDCREIT with share price depreciations of -10.00 percent, -9.70 percent, -9.52 percent, -9.41 percent, and -8.26 percent, respectively.
Market breadth on NGX displayed a negative reaction from investors as total traded volume and value significantly dropped by 46.11 percent and 62.44 percent, translating to 274.68 million units and N3.71 billion, respectively. However, total deals advanced by 27.28 percent to 10,112 deals.
Furthermore, sector performance was downbeat with the Banking, Insurance, Consumer Goods and Oil/Gas indices recording losses of 0.08 percent, 1.17 percent, 0.11 percent, and 0.01 percent, respectively. The Industrial Goods sector remained unchanged from previous trade. As the session drew to a close, UCAP took the lead as the most traded security in terms of volume and value with 26.64 million units valued at N737.25 million, exchanged in 625 trades.
In the money market, NIBOR rose across the board for all the maturities tracked as banks with liquidity sought higher rates. Likewise, short-term benchmark rates, such as the Open Repo Rate (OPR) and the Overnight Lending Rate (OVN) widened to 25.19 percent and 25.82 percent. Meanwhile, NITTY decreased across the board for most tenor buckets tracked, even as the average secondary market yields on T-bills decreased by 0.03 percent to 19.69 percent.
In the FGN bond market, average secondary market yield stayed flat at 18.75 percent. However, there was yield reduction of 27 basis points in the FEB-34 instrument, and yield expansions of 7bps and 3bps in the MAR25 and JAN-26 FGN instruments. FGN Eurobonds were largely bearish for all maturities tracked, as the average secondary market yield closed higher at 10.23 percent.
Foreign Exchange Market In the foreign exchange market, the Naira weakened against the US dollar by 0.25 percent in the official NAFEM market, closing at ₦1,508.99 per dollar. At the parallel market, the Naira closed at N1, 505 per dollar.