By Bamidele Famoofo
WorldStage– The Nigerian equities market extended its bullish run on Tuesday, with the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) advancing by 0.53 percent to close at 244,697.62 points. Consequently, year-to-date returns improved to 57.25 percent, while market capitalization gained ₦834.67 billion to settle at ₦156.94 trillion.
Despite the positive market performance, breadth closed negative at 0.9x, as 31 gainers were outweighed by 34 losers. Leading the gainers’ chart were AIRTELAFRI, INTENEGINS, ABBEYBDS, INFINITY, and FIRSTHOLDCO, while LEARNAFRICA, TRANSEXPR, UNILEVER, NAHCO, and OKOMUOIL recorded the most significant losses during the session.
Sectoral performance was predominantly bearish, with the Consumer Goods (-0.83%), Oil & Gas (-0.14%), Industrial Goods (-0.99%), and Commodity (-0.71%) indices closing lower. In contrast, the Banking and Insurance sectors posted gains of 1.33 percent and 0.24 percent, respectively, providing support for the broader market.
Trading activity was mixed, as the number of deals and market turnover declined by 24.38 percent and 0.32 percent to 56,956 transactions and ₦57.88 billion, respectively. However, trading volume surged by 70.27 percent to 1.27 billion shares, indicating heightened participation in selected counters.
Looking ahead, the market is expected to maintain its positive momentum as investors continue to reposition their portfolios and take advantage of emerging opportunities across fundamentally attractive stocks.
In the money market, NIBOR rates trended higher on Tuesday, reflecting tighter system liquidity. The overnight, 1-month, and 6-month tenors gained 3bps, 7bps, and 29bps, respectively, while the 3-month rate remained unchanged at 23.09 percent. Funding rates were mixed, with the Overnight rate easing by 3bps to 22.14 percent and the Open Repo rate holding steady at 22.00 percent.
In the Treasury Bills secondary market, yields rose across most maturities, with the 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month bills advancing by 40bps, 27bps, 32bps, and 2bps, respectively. Nonetheless, the average NT-Bills yield declined by 5bps to 17.54 percent, reflecting strong investor demand and a generally positive sentiment within the fixed-income market.The naira weakened across both market segments on Tuesday, depreciating 0.05 percent to ₦1,362.84/$ at the NAFEM window and dropping 0.14 percent to ₦1,375/$ in the parallel market, reflecting reduced buying interest in the local currency across both the official and informal foreign exchange segments.
