Equities trading at Nigerian Exchange Limited on Wednesday ended on a negative note as the bears extended their dominance from the previous session.
Trading analysis shows that sustained sell-off pressures in GTCO (-3.5%) and ETI (-10.0%) along with 22 other stocks outweighed gains recorded by 36 equities to cause a 0.12% decline in the benchmark index to 105,800.85 points.
Summarily, investors lost N81.29 billion as the market capitalisation dropped to N66.50 trillion, while the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +0.1% and +2.79%, respectively.
The total volume of trades 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.
NASD OTC – unlisted equities
Similarly, at the NASD OTC Exchange, trading in unlisted equities suffered a setback as they closed on a negative note.
The NASD Securities Index (NSI) declined by 0.05% to 3,281.07 points from 3,282 points reported on Tuesday.
Analysis of trading activities shows that a total of 3.08 million units valued at N29.01 million were exchanged in 45 deals.
The NASD OTC market recorded one (1) gainer and two (2) losers at the close of trading session on Wednesday.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
Investors suffered a similar fate at the money market as the overnight lending rate contracted by 12bps to 26.8% despite debits for the FGN bond PMA (N397.90 billion).
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.
Conversely, the FGN bond secondary market was bearish, as the average yield expanded 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.