- Naira gains 1.7% at NAFEX
Opening the week, the local bourse nudged slightly lower on Monday as the benchmark Index shed 0.49 percent to settle at 104,136.35 points.
Selloffs of Tier-1 banks, GTCO (-0.92%), FBNH (-2.07%), and Zenith Bank Plc (-1.13%) offset gains in WAPCO (+0.97%), STERLINGNG (+0.39%) and FLOURMILL (+2.63%).
As a result, the ASI’s year-to-date (YTD) return slipped to 39.27 percent, while the market capitalization shed N288.93 billion to close at N58.88 trillion.
Analysis of Monday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 20.04%.
A total of 306.82 million shares valued at N11.38 billion were exchanged in 9,343 deals.
JAIZBANK (-9.92%) led the volume chart with 23.16 million units traded while MTNN (0.00%) led the value chart in deals worth N2.61 billion.
Market breadth closed negative at a 0.71-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering the advancing ones.
DANGSUGAR (-10.00%) topped twenty-seven (27) others on the laggard’s table while ELLAHLAKES (+10.00%) led nineteen (19) others on the leader’s log.
At the forex market on Monday, the naira appreciated by 1.7 percent to N1,408.04/USD at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market.
The overnight lending rate contracted by 84bps to 26.5 percent at the money market, following inflows from FGN bond coupon payments (N124.11 billion).
Trading in the Treasury bills secondary market was bullish, as the average yield declined by 3bps to 17.7 percent.
Across the curve, the average yield contracted at the short (-2bps), mid (-2bps) and long (-3bps) segments driven by demand for the 73DTM (-2bps), 171DTM (-3bps) and 332DTM (-4bps) bills, respectively.
Similarly, the average yield dipped by 3bps to 18.5 percent in the OMO segment.
Activities in the Treasury bond secondary market were quiet with a bearish bias, as the average yield expanded slightly by 1bp to 19.1 percent.
Across the benchmark curve, the average yield increased at the short (+2bps) end due to sell-offs on the MAR-2025 (+5bps) bond but was unchanged at the mid and long segments.
