…The Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 20.7%
WED APRIL 30 2025-theGBJournal| Nigerian stocks struggled for direction on Wednesday at the NGX Exchange but the local currency, the naira firmed after losing grounds to the U.S dollar in the past three days.
The NGX All-Share Index closed 0.1% lower to 105,800.85 points, the second consecutive day of drop fanned by sell pressures in GTCO (-3.5%) and ETI (-10.0%) shares.
The market’s month-to-date and year-to-date returns moderated to +0.1% and +2.8%, respectively.
The total volume of trades equally declined, by 46.4% to 392.99 million units, valued at N12.76 billion, and exchanged in 17,519 deals.
UBA was the most traded stock by volume at 38.86 million units, while MTNN was the most traded stock by value at N3.61 billion.
Sectoral performance was mixed as the Consumer Goods (-2.0%) and Banking (-1.5%) indices declined while the Insurance (+0.9%) index closed higher. The Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.6x), as 38 tickers gained relative to 24 losers. UPL (+10.0%) and VITAFOAM (+10.0%) led the gainers, while ETI (-10.0%) and INTBREW (-10.0%) recorded the most significant losses of the day.
At the official FX market, the naira climbed by 0.2% to N1,601.50/US$1 from its low of N,605 on Tuesday.
The Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 20.7%.
Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-9bps) and long (-8bps) ends, driven by buying interest in the 85DTM (-61bps) and 218DTM (-96bps) bills, respectively, while it advanced at the mid (+8bps) segment following selloffs of the 176DTM (+65bps) bill. Similarly, the average yield contracted by 7bps to 26.9% in the OMO segment.
The FGN bond secondary market closed bearish, with the average yield up by 3bps to 18.7%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+9bps) and mid (+3bps) segments, driven by sell pressures on the JAN-2026 (+34bps) and FEB-2031 (+16bps) bonds, respectively, but was unchanged at the long segment.
Meanwhile, the overnight lending rate shrank by 12bps to 26.8% despite debits for the FGN bond PMA (N397.90 billion).
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