The local equities slipped further on Thursday, with the NGX-ASI and market capitalisation closing lower by 0.87 percent to settle at 140,332.44 points and N88.8 trillion, respectively.
Sell-offs in market heavyweights– BUACEMENT (-9.96 percent) and MTNN (-2.25 percent), as well as profit-taking actions in Access Holdings (-1.64 percent) and Julius Berger (-9.96 percent), were the major drags to the index’s decline.
The market breadth also closed negative at 0.36x as 45 losers outpaced the 16 gainers on the bourse. JAIZ BANK (+9.75 percent) emerged as the best-performing ticker in today’s trading session, while INTENEGINS (-10 percent), THOMASWY (-10 percent), UPL (-10 percent) and VERITASKAP (-10 percent) topped the laggards’ chart.
Trade metrics weakened, with the total volume and value traded printing lower at 573.8 million units (-20.51 percent) and N12.9 billion (-0.46 percent), respectively. FIDELITYBK took charge of the volume and value logs, with a total of 96.1 million units traded (16.74 percent of total volume) worth N2.0 billion (15.46 percent of total value) exchanged.
Sectoral performance…
Sectoral performance continued its bearish run, as four sectors closed in the red. The Insurance index (-4.69 percent) led the laggards, with Industrial Goods (-4.04 percent) following suit, both weighed down by declines in CORNERST (-6.29 percent) and BUACEMENT (-9.96 percent), respectively. The Oil & Gas (-0.06 percent) index lost ground as well, following sell-offs in OANDO (-0.61 percent). The Consumer Goods (-0.04 percent) sector also edged lower, dragged by a decline in CHAMPION (-9.32 percent).
Conversely, the Banking Index (+0.47 percent) closed in green on the back of buy interests for GTCO (+2.88 percent). Elsewhere, the Commodity Index closed flat.
Fixed Income (FI)…
The secondary bond market tilted bearish as average yields expanded by 2bps to close at 16.66 percent. This was driven by selloffs at the mid (+6bps) segment of the curve, particularly the 32s and 33s. The T-bills market traded quietly, albeit with a bullish undertone, with the highest yield decline observed on the Mar-26 paper. Overall, the average yield printed lower to settle at 18.07 percent.
At the OMO auction, the CBN offered N600.0 billion worth of securities across a 89-day and 124-day instrument. Demand came in strong, with a total subscription of N1.0 trillion. The CBN sold a total of N897.2 billion, with stop rates printing at 25.50 percent and 25.99 percent for the respective tenors.
Money market…
The OPR and O/N rates remained unchanged at 26.50 percent and 27 percent, respectively, as system liquidity remained robust.
Currency…
The Naira appreciated by 16bps on the official window to trade at N1,535.51/$, while the parallel market remained unchanged at N1,545/$.
NASD…
The NASD OTC exchange closed on a bearish note, as the NSI dipped 2bps to 3,640.80 points. Activity levels declined with volume and value traded decreasing by 91.17 percent and 94.21 percent, respectively, settling at 1.5 million units worth N6.0 million across 26 deals. The sole gainer in the session was LBICPLC (+0.98 percent) while IGIPLC (-7.14 percent) was the only decliner.
