By Bamidele Famoofo
WorldStage– The Nigerian equities market slipped on Wednesday, with the NGX All-Share Index declining 2.35 percent to settle at 235,074.54 points, pulling the year-to-date return down to +51.06 percent and erasing ₦3.64 trillion from market capitalization, which closed at ₦150.85 trillion.
Market breadth was broadly negative at 0.45x, as 38 decliners led by BUACEMENT, DANGCEM, GEREGU, CUSTODIAN, and ACADEMY comfortably outpaced 17 advancers, with SKYAVN, INTENEGINS, TANTALIZER, OMATEK, and AIICO recording the most notable gains.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative across the board, as Industrial (-8.31%), Commodity (-1.11%), Insurance (-0.97%), Banking (-0.71%), Consumer Goods (-0.29%), and Oil & Gas (-0.11%) all finished in negative territory. Trading activity weakened considerably, with volume, turnover, and deal count declining 13.60 percent, 46.81 percent, and 6.08 percent to 488.08 million shares, ₦20.93 billion, and 46,239 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.
The NIBOR curve shifted lower across all maturities at the money market on Wednesday, reflecting tightened system liquidity. The overnight, 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month tenors declined 28bps, 70bps, and 96bps respectively, while funding rates were mixed, as the Overnight rate eased 18bps to 22.15 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 and 3-month bills slipping 5bps and 3bps respectively, while the 6-month and 12-month instruments advanced 11bps and 16bps respectively. Overall, the average NT-Bills yield surged 17bps to 18.15 percent, pointing to bearish sentiment in the fixed-income market amid softer investor demand and subdued trading activity.
The FGN Bonds market closed on a bearish note on Wednesday, with average yields climbing 16bps to 17.22 percent, reflecting negative investor sentiment and a continued decline in demand for naira-denominated sovereign securities.
The Eurobond market mirrored this weakness, as average yields edged up 2bps to 7.06 percent, pointing to softening offshore investor demand and an increasingly cautious outlook toward Nigeria’s dollar-denominated sovereign debt amid prevailing global market uncertainties.
At the foreign exchange market, the naira retreated across both market segments on Wednesday, depreciating 0.68.percent to ₦1,380.08/$ at the NAFEM window and weakening a further 0.50 percent to ₦1,388/$ in the parallel market, reflecting cautious trading sentiment and broad-based selling pressure on the local currency across both the official and informal foreign exchange segments.
