…The total trading volume declined by 16.3% to 280.92 million units, valued at NGN3.63 billion, and exchanged in 8,403 deals.
…Sentiments in the Treasury bills secondary market turned bearish, as the average yield advanced by 22bps to 25.1%.
TUE JULY 23 2024-theGBJournal| The Nigerian stock market reversed yesterday’s gains today as selloffs in ZENITHBANK (-1.6%), UBA (-1.5%), and FBNH (-0.9%) caused a 0.1% decline in the NGX ASI to 100,486.12 points.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns printed +0.4% and +34.4%, respectively.
The total trading volume declined by 16.3% to 280.92 million units, valued at NGN3.63 billion, and exchanged in 8,403 deals. VERITASKAP was the most traded stock by volume at 22.51 million units, while UCAP led in value at NGN817.10 million.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Banking (-0.7%) and Insurance (-0.2%) indices posted losses, while the Consumer Goods (+0.1%) index advanced. The Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices remained unchanged.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.5x), as 26 tickers lost relative to 13 gainers. UPL (-9.9%) and JOHNHOLT (-9.9%) led the losers, while IKEJAHOTEL (+7.6%) and LINKASSURE (+6.9%) topped the gainers’ list.
Currency
The naira falls 3.1% to NGN1,548.76/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM).
Last week, the exchange rate at the NAFEM window fell by 2.07% to close at N1,596.92/US$1.
This brought the year-to-date decline in the Naira to the US dollar tov43.20%. In the parallel market the Naira dipped by 2.19% to end the last trading session at N1,600.00/US$1.
Consequently, the gap between the official and street markets widened to 0.19% (0.08% the previous week).
For the sixth week in a row, the CBN’s published gross foreign exchange reserve appreciated adding 1.58% or US$557.70m to end the week at N35.93tn.
Demand pressure persisted despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s announcement that it would inject ample foreign exchange into the market over the coming weeks to enhance liquidity
Money and Fixed Income
Sentiments in the Treasury bills secondary market turned bearish, as the average yield advanced by 22bps to 25.1%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-1bp) and mid (-2bps) segments, following demand for the 65DTM (-1bp) and 156DTM (-2bps) bills, respectively.
The average yield expanded at the long (+43bps) end, driven by sell pressures on the 261DTM (+215bps) bill. Likewise, the average yield increased by 13bps to 24.4% in the OMO segment.
Trading in the FGN bond secondary remained bearish, as the average yield rose by 2bps to 19.2%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield advanced at the short (+1bp) and long (+3bps) ends, as players took profits off the MAR-2025 (+2bps) and MAR-2050 (+27bps) bonds, respectively. Elsewhere, the average yield closed flat at the mid segment.
The overnight lending rate expanded by 610bps to 31.9% despite the inflows from OMO maturities (NGN41.00 billion).
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