FIXED INCOME MARKET
Money Markets
Interbank system liquidity declined today, opening with a balance of ₦128.34 billion, higher than the previous day’s opening balance of ca ₦256.74 billion. Consequently, the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) and Overnight (ON) rates trended higher to settle at 5.75% and 6.25% from 5.25% and 5.75% recorded the previous day.
Treasury Bills
The NTB secondary market remained quiet at the end of the week, with only mild interest seen on the CBN Special bill and the 30 Mar 2023 papers. Overall, the average rate remained stable day-on-day at 3.23%.
Bonds
Generally, it was a subdued session to end the week in the FGN bonds market, with little to no trade executed across the curve, save for the interest seen on the 2029s and 2036s. However, the bearish undertone persisted, buoyed by FGN’s planned additional borrowing of ca N965 billion from the domestic debt market. The average yield was relatively stable, while YTD returns settled at ca +7.60%.
Eurobonds
The SSA Eurobonds market witnessed bullish sentiments today. The Angola 10-yr paper issued (N1.75bn) at 8.75% after an Initial Pricing Target (IPT) of 9% area, saw some buyside activity at 8.68% levels. The Ghana and Nigerian curves also experienced some bullishness, as players continue to reinvest coupon flows and cherry-pick across attractive papers.
Equities
The domestic equities market returned some of previous day’s losses to close the day in the green, as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index (NGX ASI) gained 0.19% day-on-day to close at 46,631.46pts, while year-to-date returns improved to ca +9.17%. This was largely due to buy-side interest on stocks like Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (+2.45%), United Africa Company of Nigeria Plc (+1.55%) and Zenith Bank Plc (+0.88%).
The NGX Oil and Gas, Banking, Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods indices gained ca 0.83%, 0.75%, 0.20% and 0.06% respectively, day-on-day.
Fidelity Bank Plc led the volume chart with ca 20.22 million units while Zenith Bank Plc topped the value charts with ca ₦273.99 million worth of trades.
Foreign Exchange
FMDQ’s Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) rate traded flat at ₦416.67/US$1.00.
Commodities
Global crude oil prices depreciated today, after an agreement by consuming countries to release 240 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves to help overcome Russian supply disruptions. Thus, Brent Crude Oil price lost ca 0.32% day-on-day to settle at US$100.19pb, while WTI also lost ca 0.24% day-on-day to settle at US$95.86pb as at report time. Spot Gold gained ca 0.49% day-on-day to close at US$1,947.10 per ounce as at report time.
