By Bamidele Famoofo
WorldStage– The Nigerian equities market edged marginally lower at the close of the week on Friday, with the NGX All-Share Index slipping 0.07 percent to close at 243,798.76 points, pulling the year-to-date return to +56.67 percent and stripping ₦102.65 billion from market capitalization, which closed at ₦156.44 trillion.
Investor sentiment was positive at a market breadth of 1.1x, as 30 advancers led by NIDF, INTBREW, NEM, JAIZBANK, and UPDC outpaced 27 decliners, with THOMASWY, GUINNESS, IKEJAHOTEL, ZICHIS, and MCNICHOLS recording the most notable losses.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as Consumer Goods (+0.49%), Oil & Gas (+0.17%), and Insurance (+0.06%) all finished in positive territory, while Banking (-0.78%) weighed on the index and the Industrial and Commodity sectors ended flat. Trading activity was varied, as volume and turnover plunged 73.36 percent and 82.67 percent to 441.27 million shares and ₦19.4 billion respectively, while deal count edged up 0.35 percent to 44,938 transactions. Looking ahead, the market is expected to rebound, underpinned by ongoing strategic investor repositioning and portfolio rebalancing.
At the money market, interbank market enjoyed a bullish session on Friday as improved system liquidity dragged the overnight NIBOR down 2bps to 22.19 percent. Longer-dated maturities followed suit, with the 1-month and 3-month rates dropping by 3bps and 5bps, though the 6-month rate ticked up 0.2bp. Short-term funding costs diverged as the Overnight rate rose 3bps to 22.23 percent while the Open Repo rate held flat at 22.00 percent.
Meanwhile, Treasury Bills secondary market trading closed mixed. Yields on the 1-month and 3-month papers advanced by 19bps and 40bps, whereas the 6-month and 12-month bills declined by 0.2bp and 14bps. Ultimately, robust trading volumes and firm investor appetite pulled the average NT-Bills yield down by 3bps to 18.51 percent.
The domestic fixed-income market stayed positive on Friday as an FGN Bonds rally dragged average yields down by 1bp to 17.63 percent, driven by firm local institutional demand.
Concurrently, the Eurobond market closed positive as average yields declined by 3bps to 6.98%, reflecting improved global investor confidence in Nigeria’s dollar debt.
The naira closed mixed on Friday in the forex market, weakening by 0.09 percent to ₦1,379.62/$ at the official NAFEM window, but gaining 0.07% to settle at ₦1,379/$ in the parallel market
