THUR 21 APRIL, 2022-theGBJournal | Trading in the Nigerian equities market sustained its positive momentum for the third consecutive session as the All-Share Index advanced by 0.2% to 48,223.86 points. Today’s performance was supported by gains in GTCO (+1.7%) and ZENITHBANK (+1.3%). Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to +2.7% and +12.9%, respectively.
The total volume traded decreased by 30.0% to 244.69 million units, valued at NGN3.15 billion, and exchanged in 4,859 deals. CUSTODIAN was the most traded stock by volume at 38.70 million units, while NB was the most traded stock by value at NGN733.01 million.
Performance across sectors was broadly positive, as the Oil & Gas (+1.6%), Banking (+0.5%), Insurance (+0.4%), Consumer Goods (+0.2%), and Industrial Goods (+0.1%) indices recorded gains.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (3.1x) as 28 tickers gained relative to 9 losers. BERGER (+10.0%) and ETERNA (+10.0%) recorded the highest gains of the day, while SCOA (-9.8%) and ABCTRANS (-6.5%) topped the losers’ list.
Currency
The naira depreciated by 0.3% to NGN419.50/USD at the I&E window.
Money & fixed Income
The overnight lending rate contracted by 550bps to 7.2% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
Trading in the NTB secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded by 10bps to 3.7%. Across the curve, the average yield was flat at the short end, but expanded at the mid (+9bps) and long (+16bps) segments due to profit-taking on the 112DTM (+16bps) and 294DTM (+49bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield expanded by 7bps to 3.9% in the OMO segment.
The Treasury bonds secondary market was mixed, as the average yield was unchanged at 10.9%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield inched higher at the short (+1bp) end as investors sold off the MAR-2025 (+9bps) bond; the average yield was flat at the mid and long segments.
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