BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
The Nigerian equities market continued trading with positive sentiments as investors bought up AIRTELAFRI (+10.0%). Thus, the All-Share Index advanced by 1.1% to 43,476.75 points. Accordingly, the Year-to-Date return printed +1.8%.
The total volume of trades increased by 472.8% to 1.24 billion units, valued at N42.97 billion, and exchanged in 4,032 deals. WEMABANK was the most traded stock by volume at 25.01 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value at N275.23 million.
On sectors, the Oil & Gas (+3.1%) and Insurance (+0.9%) indices advanced while the Industrial Goods (-2.4%) and Banking (-0.5%) indices declined. The Consumer Goods index was flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.2x) as 19 tickers gained relative to 16 losers. AIRTELAFRI (+10.0%) and OANDO (+9.7%) recorded the most significant gains of the day while UNITYBNK (-9.6%) and ROYALEX (-9.4%) topped the losers’ list.
In the currency market, the naira appreciated by 1.6% to N416.00/USD at the I&E window while the overnight lending rate contracted by 225bps to 5.3% in the absence of any significant funding pressure on the system in the Fixed Income market.
Trading in the NTB segment of the treasury bills secondary market was mixed, albeit with a bearish bias, as the average yield expanded slightly by 1bp to 4.4%. Across the curve, the average yield remained unchanged at the short and mid segments but closed higher at the long (+2bps) end as investors sold off the 204DTM (+18bps) bill. Elsewhere at OMO segment, the average yield was unchanged at 5.5%.
Mixed trading sentiments also dominated the Treasury bond secondary market as the average yield closed flat at 11.4%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+4bps) end following sell pressures on the JAN-2026 (+23bps) bonds, while it contracted at the mid (-2bps) and long (-2bps) segments due to demand for the APR-2028 (-7bps) and MAR-2050 (-13bps) bonds, respectively.
