*Naira closed on a mixed note in forex markets
By Bamidele Famoofo
WorldStage– The Nigerian equities market extended its bearish run on Friday, with the NGX All-Share Index declining 0.66 percent to settle at 232,049.02 points, pulling the year-to-date return down to +49.12 percent and erasing ₦982.96 billion from market
capitalization, which closed at ₦148.91 trillion.
Market breadth was broadly negative at 0.35x, as 37 decliners led by DEAPCAP, INTENEGINS, TRANSEXPR, ETRANZACT, and UPDC comfortably outpaced 13 advancers, with UNIVINSURE, MCNICHOLS, LINKASSURE, NGXGROUP, and TRANSCORP recording the most notable gains.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative across the board, as Oil & Gas (-4.66%), Commodity (-3.13%), Insurance (-2.23%), Consumer Goods (-0.96%), Banking (-0.28%), and Industrial (-0.002%) all finished in negative territory. Trading activity weakened further, with volume, turnover, and deal count declining 1.26 percent, 4.07 percent, and 2.58 percent to 388.69 million shares, ₦18.43 billion, and 44,631 transactions respectively.
Looking ahead, the market is expected to rebound as investors seek out fundamentally strong stocks, though profit-taking in recently appreciated counters may temper the pace of any recovery.
At the money market, the NIBOR curve climbed across all maturities on Friday, with the overnight rate advancing 3bps to 22.28 percent, reflecting tightening system liquidity. The 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month tenors followed suit, rising 22bps, 40bps, and 54bps respectively, while funding rates were mixed, as the Overnight rate edged up 2bps to 22.23 percent and the Open Repo rate held steady at 22.00 percent.
In the Treasury Bills secondary market, yields closed on a varied note, with the 1-month, 6-month, and 12-month bills advancing 15bps, 26bps, and 3bps respectively, while the 3-month instrument eased 3bps. Overall, the average NT-Bills yield surged 8bps to 18.67 percent, pointing to bearish sentiment in the fixed-income market amid softer investor demand and subdued trading activity.
Meanwhile, the FGN Bonds market closed sharply bearish on Friday, with average yields surging 40bps to 17.70 percent, reflecting deeply negative domestic investor sentiment and a significant decline in demand for naira-denominated sovereign securities.
The Eurobond market mirrored this weakness, as average yields edged up 1bp to 7.08 percent, reflecting cautious yet softening global investor interest and a broadly negative outlook toward Nigeria’s dollar-denominated sovereign obligations.In the foreign exchange markets, the naira closed on a mixed note on Friday, edging lower by 0.06 percent to ₦1,380.93/$ at the NAFEM window while holding steady at ₦1,388/$ in the parallel market, reflecting subdued activity in the official segment even as the informal market remained largely unmoved.
