*Investors sustain demand amid caution in treasure bills market
By Bamidele Famoofo
WorldStage– Nigerian equities extended their bullish run on Wednesday, with the NGX All-Share Index edging up 0.11% to close at 200,925.75 points, nudging the YTD return to +29.12% and adding ₦141.14 billion to market capitalization, which settled at ₦128.98 trillion.
Market breadth was broadly flat at 1x, as 32 stocks declined, headlined by FIDSON, AUSTINLAZ, LIVINGTRUST, NSLTECH, and STERLINGNG narrowly outpacing 31 advancers, with LEGENDINT, ZICHIS, PREMPAINTS, JOHNHOLT, and CONHALLPLC posting the steepest losses.
Sectoral performance was mixed, with Insurance (+0.76%) and Consumer Goods (+0.42%) closing in the green, while Banking (-0.98%) and Industrial (-0.11%) weighed on the index, and Oil & Gas and Commodity sectors ended flat. Trading activity softened considerably, as volumes, turnover, and deal count declined 58.34%, 61.15%, and 49.26% to 537.99 million shares, ₦25.39 billion, and 45,641 transactions respectively.
At the money market, Nigerian Interbank Offered Rates (NIBOR) remained largely stable across most tenors on Wednesday, with the overnight rate holding steady at 22.33%, indicating balanced system liquidity. The 3-month and 6-month rates also stayed flat, while the 1-month tenor saw a marginal decline of 4bps. Funding costs were mixed: the Overnight rate edged up 6bps to 22.32%, while the Open Repo rate remained unchanged at 22.00%.
In the Treasury Bills secondary market, yields softened across all maturities, with the 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, and 12- month bills declining by 50bps, 9bps, 18bps, and 8bps respectively. However, the average NT-Bills yield closed flat at 17.84%, reflecting steady investor demand amid continued caution in the fixed-income segment .
