BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
The Nigerian equities market traded marginally higher as sustained interest in BUAFOODS (+5.6%) underpinned a 0.1 percent increase in the All-Share Index to 55,769.28 points.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns were unchanged at +6.4 percent and +8.8 percent, respectively.
The total volume traded declined by 38.7 percent to 661.51 million units, valued at N19.00 billion, and exchanged in 10,024 deals. ACCESSCORP was the most traded stock by volume at 98.73 million units, while GEREGU was the most traded stock by value at N9.76 billion.
Analyzing by sectors, the Consumer Goods (+2.1%) and Oil & Gas (+1.6%) indices advanced, while the Banking (-2.5%), Insurance (-2.5%), and Industrial Goods (-0.2%) indices closed lower.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.8x), as 39 tickers lost relative to 30 gainers. NASCON (-9.8%) and RTBRISCOE (-9.8%) topped the losers’ list, while MCNICHOLS (+10.0%) and VERITASKAP (+10.0%) recorded the highest gains of the day.
At the currency market the naira closed flat at N464.67/USD at the I&E window.
The overnight lending rate contracted by 100bps to 12.3 percent, in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system at the money market.
Bullish sentiments persisted in the Treasury bills secondary market, as the average yield contracted by 42bps to 6.2 percent.
Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-228bps), mid (-9bps), and long (-39bps) segments, due to buying interests on the 8DTM (-228bps), 99DTM (-109bps), and 253DTM (-143bps) bills, respectively.
Meanwhile, proceedings in the Treasury bond secondary market were bearish, as the average yield expanded by 2bps to 13.9 percent.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+12bps) end, following the sell-off of the MAR-2024 (+57bps) bond but contracted at the long (-3bps) end as investors demanded the JAN-2042 (-23bps) bond.
Conversely, the average yield was flat at the mid segment.
