THUR, MAY 25 2023-theGBJournal |Despite three consecutive days of gains during the week, the local bourse paused its bullish streak as selloffs of GEREGU (-4.8%) triggered a 0.2% decline in the benchmark Index.
Thus, the NGX ASI settled at 52,821.60 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +0.8% and +3.1%, respectively.
The total volume traded declined by 17.2% to 377.14 million units, valued at NGN9.18 billion, and exchanged in 5,879 deals. UBA was the most traded stock by volume at 86.17 million units, while GEREGU was the most traded stock by value at NGN3.92 billion.
On sectoral performance, the Consumer Goods (-0.1%), Insurance (-0.1%), Industrial Goods (-0.1%), and Banking (-0.1%) printed losses, while the Oil & Gas (+0.2%) index advanced.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was mixed (1.0x), as 23 tickers lost relative to 22 gainers. CONOIL (-9.9%) and UNILEVER (-8.3%) topped the losers’ list, while FTNCOCOA (+8.8%) and TANTALIZER (+8.3%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
At the currency market, the naira depreciated by 0.1% to N463.67/USD at the I&E window.
The overnight lending rate expanded by 38bps to 11.5%, in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system.
Activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were bullish, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 6.8%. Across the curve, the average yield closed flat at the short and mid segments but contracted at the long (-6bps) end following buying interest in the 287DTM (-35bps) bill.
Similarly, proceedings in the Treasury bond secondary market were bullish as the average yield declined by 4bps to 13.9%.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-5bps) and long (-4bps) ends, as market participants demanded the JAN-2026 (-12bps) and JAN-2042 (-12bps) bonds, respectively. Conversely, the average yield closed flat at the mid segment.
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