By Bamidele Famoofo
WorldStage— The Nigerian equities market edged lower on Monday, with the NGX All-Share Index slipping 0.05 percent to close at 247,238.74 points, pulling the year-to-date return down to +58.88 percent and erasing ₦76.56 billion from market capitalization, which closed at ₦159.51 trillion.
Investor sentiment was negative at a market breadth of 0.8x, as 32 decliners led by SUNUASSUR, TRANSPOWER, INTBREW, NEIMETH, and AUSTINLAZ outpaced 27 advancers, with CNIF, THOMASWY, LASACO, CMFC, and CHAMS recording the most notable gains.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as Insurance (-1.69%), Consumer Goods (-1.07%), Commodity (-0.87%), Oil & Gas (-0.14%), and Industrial (-0.06%) all weighed on the index, while the Banking sector (+0.78%) bucked the trend. Trading activity was broadly positive, however, as volume, turnover, and deal count increased 3.81 percent, 73.60 percent, and 28.87 percent to 637.96 million shares, ₦57.20 billion, and 71,240 transactions respectively.
Looking ahead, stock market analysts said the market is tilting toward a rebound given today’s marginal decline, though profit-taking in recently appreciated counters could temper the pace of any recovery.
In the money market, the Nigerian Interbank Offered Rates ended Monday on a mixed note, as the overnight rate eased by 3bps to 22.21% amid stable system liquidity. Conversely, longer-term tenors trended upward, with the 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month rates advancing by 19bps, 43bps, and 50bps respectively. Funding costs also showed divergence; the Overnight rate climbed 13bps to 22.25 percent, while the Open Repo rate held flat at 22.00 percent.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Bills secondary market posted varied yield movements across tenors. Yields on the 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month papers dropped by 13bps, 8bps, and 14bps respectively, whereas the 1-month paper bucked the trend with a slight 2bps gain. Ultimately, robust investor demand pulled the average NT-Bills yield down by 9bps to settle at 18.01 percent, underscoring a generally positive momentum in the fixed-income market.
The domestic fixed-income market started the week on a bullish note on Monday, driven by strong local demand that dragged average FGN Bond yields down by 12bps to settle at 17.25 percent.
Concurrently, the Eurobond market experienced strong buying pressure, with average yields declining 5bps to close at 6.93 percent. This positive performance reflected renewed foreign investor appetite and growing global demand for Nigeria’s dollar-denominated debt instruments across maturities.
