FIXED INCOME MARKET
Money Markets
Interbank system liquidity improved today, opening with a balance of ca ₦115.62 billion, higher than the previous day’s opening balance of ca ₦73.51 billion. Thus, the Open Buy Back (OBB) and Overnight (ON) rates trended lower to 15.00% and 15.50% from 15.50% and 15.75% respectively the previous day.
Treasury Bills
The NTB secondary market endured a dull session today, albeit with a bullish undertone. Buy-side activity remained skewed to the long end papers, thereby causing ca 7bps drop in average rate to 4.38%.
Bonds
Activity in the FGN bonds secondary market was also quiet today, with mild interest noticed on the 2034, 2036, 2037 and 2050 maturities. However, bids were quite wide from available offers. Thus, average yield stayed relatively flat day-on-day.
Eurobonds
The Eurobonds space was bullish today, with demand seen across the curve. Overall, average yield dropped by ca 15bps day-on-day to 7.44%.
Equities
The domestic bourse extended losses, as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index (NGX ASI) lost 0.51% day-on-day to close at 42,247.98pts, while year-to-date performance declined to +4.91%. This was largely due to losses in stocks such as Zenith Bank Plc (-1.88%), MTN Nigeria Communication Plc (-1.05%) and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (-0.41%).
The NSE Oil and Gas, Banking and Industrial Goods indices lost ca 3.51%, 1.18% and 0.10% respectively, while the NSE Consumer Goods index gained 0.08%, day-on-day.
First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc led both the volume and value charts with ca 133.36 million units traded at ca ₦1.35 billion worth of trades.
Foreign Exchange
FMDQ’s Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) appreciated to ₦414.80/US$1.00 from ₦415.07/US$1.00, the previous day.
Commodities
Global crude oil prices continued to trend downwards, on rising concerns of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus. This comes as some investors anticipate that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) and allies will decide to maintain the current supply levels in January to cushion any damage on demand from the Omicron spread. Thus, Brent Crude oil price lost ca 2.88% day-on-day to settle at US$66.91pb, while WTI also lost ca 2.67% to US$63.83 as at report time. Spot Gold lost ca 0.35% day-on-day to settle at US$1,778.10 per ounce as at report time.
