By Bamidele Famoofo
WorldStage— The Nigerian equities market rebounded on Friday, with the NGX All-Share Index gaining 0.54 percent to close at 243,462.13
points, pushing the year-to-date return to +56.45 percent and adding ₦849.28 billion to market capitalization, which closed at
₦157.06 trillion.
Investor sentiment remained positive at a market breadth of 1.9x, as 33 gainers led by FIRSTHOLDCO, HMCALL, LIVINGTRUST, WAPIC, and LASACO outpaced 17 losers, with REDSTAREX, OMATEK, CILEASING, JAIZBANK, and LIVESTOCK recording the most notable losses.
Sectoral performance was mostly positive, as Banking (+3.13%), Insurance (+1.08%), and Consumer Goods (+0.21%) all finished in positive territory, while Oil & Gas, Industrial, and Commodity sectors ended relatively flat. Trading activity strengthened across the board, with volume, turnover, and deal count advancing 37.60 percent, 22.40 percent, and 11.78 percent to 685.87 million shares, ₦42.68 billion, and 44,134 transactions respectively.
Looking ahead, the market is expected to sustain its positive momentum, underpinned by strategic portfolio rebalancing, though profit-taking in recently appreciated counters could temper the pace of any recovery.
Despite reduced system liquidity in the money market, the interbank market closed positive on Friday as the overnight NIBOR held flat at 22.21 percent. Longer-dated tenors declined, with the 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month rates dropping by 1bp, 3bps, and 9bps respectively. Meanwhile, funding costs diverged as the Overnight rate fell 12bps to 22.13 percent while the Open Repo rate remained unchanged at 22.00 percent.
Concurrently, the Treasury Bills secondary market closed mixed as yields on the 1-month and 6-month papers dropped by 6bps and 29bps respectively, while the 3-month and 12-month rates advanced by 16bps and 17bps. Ultimately, heightened trading activity and improved investor appetite pulled the average NT-Bills yield down by 2bps to 18.22 percent.
The domestic fixed-income market closed bullish on Friday as robust local demand dragged average FGN Bond yields down by 3bps to settle at 17.61 percent.
Meanwhile, the Eurobond market reversed gains to close negative, with average yields advancing 1bp to 6.89 percent amid softening international investor confidence in Nigeria’s dollar-denominated debt.
In the foreign exchange market , naira posted a bullish performance on Friday, strengthening by 0.10 percent to close at ₦1,380.18/$ at the official NAFEM
window, while remaining unchanged in the parallel market to settle at ₦1,379/$.
