By Bamidele Famoofo
WorldStage— The Nigerian equities market rebounded on Friday, with the NGX All-Share Index gaining 0.15 percent to settle at 242,593.31
points, pushing the year-to-date return to +55.90 percent and adding ₦234.73 billion to market capitalization, which closed at ₦155.59 trillion.
Market breadth was strongly positive at 3.5x, as 39 advancers led by INTENEGINS, ABBEYBDS, DAARCOMM, ZICHIS, and SOVRENINS comfortably outpaced 11 decliners, with ACADEMY, UPL, VFDGROUP, AFRIPRUD, and CHAMS recording the most notable losses. Sectoral performance was broadly positive, as Insurance (+1.14%), Banking (+0.90%), Industrial (+0.46%), Consumer Goods (+0.06%), and Oil & Gas (+0.01%) all finished in positive territory, while the Commodity sector ended flat. Trading activity was diverse, as volume and turnover climbed 3.40 percent and 14.90 percent to 608.49 million shares and ₦32.03 billion respectively, while deal count slipped 6.15 percent to 53,826 transactions.
Heading into the next session, the market is expected to resume its bearish bias as profit-taking activity continues to weigh on investor sentiment.
In the money market, the Nigerian Interbank Offered Rates ( NIBOR) fell sharply across the board on Friday, with the overnight rate declining 23bps to 22.06 percent, reflecting improved system liquidity. The 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month tenors followed suit, retreating 86bps, 178bps, and 248bps respectively. Funding costs were divergent, however, as the Overnight rate eased 5bps to 22.10 percent while the Open Repo rate remained unchanged at 22.00 percent.
In the Treasury Bills secondary market, yields largely trended upward, with the 1-month, 6-month, and 12-month bills rising 6bps, 4bps, and 37bps respectively, while the 3-month bill closed largely flat. Despite this, the average NT-Bills yield eased 1bp to close at 17.54 percent, reflecting increased investor demand and a broadly positive tone across the fixed-income
space.
The FGN Bonds market closed on a bearish note on Friday, with average yields climbing 2bps to 16.33 percent, signaling
dampened domestic investor confidence and weakening appetite for naira-denominated sovereign debt.
The Eurobond market echoed this negativity, as average yields rose 7bps to 6.81 percent, reflecting softening global investor interest and a broadly unfavorable outlook toward Nigeria’s dollar-denominated sovereign obligations.
In the foreign exchange market, the naira posted a mixed performance on Friday, depreciating 0.25 percent to ₦1,362.21/$ at the NAFEM window while strengthening 0.07 percent to ₦1,368/$ in the parallel market, reflecting divergent currency dynamics between the official and informal foreign exchange segments.
