BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
The naira appreciated by 2.9% to N422.67/USD at the Investor’s and Export window even as the All Share Index closed on a positive on Tuesday, gaining 0.7%.
The local bourse kicked off the first trading session of the year on a positive note, following bargain hunting on BUACEMENT (+7.3%) stock. Thus, the All-Share Index advanced by 0.7% to 43,026.23 points. Accordingly, the Year-to-Date return printed +0.7% respectively.
The total volume of trades decreased by 52.4% to 216.65 million units, valued at N1.52 billion, and exchanged in 4,080 deals. CHAMS was the most traded stock by volume at 29.87 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value at N696.47 million.
Analysing by sectors, the Consumer Goods (-0.9%), Oil & Gas (-0.5%) and Insurance (-0.4%) indices declined while the Industrial Goods (+3.0%) and Banking (+0.4%) indices posted gains.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.7x) as 25 tickers lost relative to 17 gainers. ARDOVA (-10.0%) and VITAFOAM (-10.0%) closed​ limit up and topped the losers’ list while ACADEMY (+10.0%) and WEMABANK (+9.7%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
The overnight lending rate contracted by 300bps to 7.5% following inflows from OMO maturities (N70.00 billion).
In the money and currencies market, NTB secondary market was mixed, with a bullish bias, as the average yield pared by 1bp to 4.4%. Across the curve, the average yield was unchanged at the short and mid segments but contracted at the long (-2bps) end following demand for the 233DTM (-14bps) bill. Elsewhere, the average yield expanded by 4bps to 5.5% in the OMO segment.
The Treasury bond secondary market was bearish as the average yield expanded by 2bps to 11.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield pared at the short (-1bp) and mid (-1bp) segments due to demand for the APR-2023 (-4bps) and FEB-2028 (-3bps) bonds, respectively. Conversely, the average yield expanded at the long (+6bps) end, as investors sold off the APR-2049 (+40bps) bond.
