FIXED INCOME MARKET
Money Markets
Interbank system liquidity further depreciated today, opening with a deficit balance of ₦21.82 billion, compared to previous day’s opening balance of ca ₦72.75 billion. Consequently, the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) and Overnight (ON) rates trended higher, to settle at 12.33% and 12.67% respectively from 8.00% and 8.83, recorded the previous day.
Treasury Bills
The NTB secondary market continued to trade sideways, with demand seen on June to September 2022 bills, while improved offers were observed on April 2023 papers. Thus, on the average, rates stayed relatively flat across the curve, but dipped by ca 5bps on short to mid tenors.
Bonds
Activity in the FGN bonds secondary market was also mixed, with buyside interest witnessed on 2024, 2036 and 2042 maturities, while offers were seen on 2026, 2028 and 2035 maturities. Overall, the average yield inched up slightly by 2bps day-on-day.
Eurobonds
Ghana’s positive Q4 GDP numbers surpassing market expectations, spurred renewed buyside interest across the Ghana Eurobond curve. The Nigerian Eurobond curve and other SSAs, also witnessed sizeable demand, as investors cherry-picked the relatively high yielding papers, in what appears to be an unusual rally, given the current global inflation worries and hawkish tone from the US Feds. Overall, the average yield settled at 8.17%.
Equities
The domestic equities market continued to trend north, as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index (NSE ASI) gained 1.25% day-on-day to close at 48,138.71pts, while market year-to-date returns extended to +12.69%. This was largely supported by buy interest in Nigerian Breweries Plc (+8.60%), Airtel Africa Plc (+4.73%) and Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc (+4.57%).
The NGX Oil and Gas, Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods Indices gained 2.98%, 2.06% and 0.98% respectively, while the NGX Banking indices shed 2.45%, day-on-day.
Universal Insurance Plc led the volume chart with ca 73.05 million units while MTN Nigeria Communications Plc topped the value charts with ca ₦629.03 million worth of trades.
Foreign Exchange
FMDQ’s Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) rate depreciated to ₦418.33/US$1.00 from ₦417.00/US$1.00, printed the previous day.
Commodities
Global oil prices continued its undulating trend, as the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a drop of 4.5million barrels in U.S crude inventories. Thus, Brent Crude Oil price gained ca 0.89% day-on-day to settle at US$103.47pb, while WTI also gained ca 0.62% day-on-day to settle at US$107.92pb as at report time. Spot Gold fell ca 0.21% day-on-day to close at US$1,954.40 per ounce as at report time.
