By Bamidele Famoofo
WorldStage– The Nigerian equities market retreated on Wednesday as the NGX All-Share Index declined 0.21 percent to close at 242,366.75 points, bringing the year-to-date return to +55.75 percent, though market capitalization grew 0.25 percent (up ₦390.32 billion) to ₦156.24 trillion.
Investor sentiment stayed positive with a 1.7x market breadth, as 31 gainers led by FIRSTHOLDCO, THOMASWY, LEGENDINT, TRIPPLEG, and MCNICHOLS outnumbered 19 losers, including TRANSEXPR, INTBREW, HMCALL, DAARCOMM, and NGXGROUP.
Sectoral performance was mixed: Banking (+2.20%) and Insurance (+0.74%) advanced, whereas Consumer Goods (-0.27%) and Industrial (-0.23%) declined, and Oil & Gas and Commodity sectors flatlined.
Trading activity was broadly negative, with volume, turnover, and deal count dropping 24.96 percent, 44.46 percent, and 3.53 percent to 476.34 million shares, ₦29.63 billion, and 40,992 deals respectively.
Looking ahead, the market is expected to rebound on strategic portfolio rebalancing, though profit-taking on recently appreciated counters could slow down the recovery pace.
Meanwhile, despite improved system liquidity, the interbank market rose across all tenors on Wednesday at the money market as the overnight NIBOR climbed 3bps to 22.22 percent. Longer-dated tenors followed this upward trend, with the 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month rates rising 15bps, 25bps, and 40bps respectively. Funding costs diverged as the Overnight rate fell 2bps to 22.16 percent while the Open Repo rate remained flat at 22.00 percent.
Concurrently, the Treasury Bills secondary market turned bearish as yields climbed across all tenors. Rates on the 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month papers advanced by 1bp, 7bps, 2bps, and 6bps respectively. Ultimately, cautious trading volumes and stable investor appetite kept the average NT-Bills yield unchanged at 18.41 percent.
The domestic fixed-income market fell on Wednesday as tepid local demand pushed average FGN Bond yields up by 1bp to 17.64 percent. The Eurobond market closed positive, with average yields dipping 4bps to 6.89 percent on stronger international investor confidence in Nigeria’s dollar-denominated debt.The naira delivered a mixed performance on Wednesday, recording divergent movements across major trading windows. While the local currency appreciated marginally by 0.06 percent to close at ₦1,382.18/$ at the official NAFEM window, it weakened by 0.15 percent in the parallel market to settle at ₦1,384/$.
