FIXED INCOME MARKET
Money Market
Interbank liquidity opened with a balance of c.-₦115.64bn, compared to yesterday’s opening balance of c.-₦165.27bn. Nonetheless, the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) and Overnight Rate (O/N) remained unchanged at 17.13% and 17.25% respectively.
Treasury Bills
Activity in the NTB market was lull, as attention shifted to the NTB auction where c.₦213bn was offered across the usual tenors and a hike in stop rates was anticipated, amid yesterday’s increase in MPR to 16.50%. Overall, the average rate was relatively flat day-on-day at 8.51%. . At the auction, the CBN/DMO increased the stop rate on the 1-year paper by 85bps to 14.84%, while maintaining the rates on the 91- and 182-day paper at 6.50% and 8.05% respectively.
Bonds
The FGN bonds market witnessed a bearish theme at the start of the day in reaction to yesterday’s increase in benchmark interest rate. However, as the day progressed, bids and offers adjusted in tandem to reflect real interests across the curve. Most interests were skewed to 2026s, 2029s, 2037s, 2042s, 2049s and 2050s. Thus, the average mid-yield closed c.17bps higher, day-on-day, to settle at 14.77%.
Eurobonds
The Eurobond space witnessed some buying interests across major African curves, as the equities markets pushed higher, and futures recorded marginal gains. It also appears the Fed officials are showing willingness to slow rate hikes, amid the release of last FOMC meeting minutes which saw a fourth straight 75bps hike to 4.00%.
Equities
The domestic bourse continued on its bullish trend as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index (NGX ASI) gained 2.90% day-on-day to settle at 46,232.37pts, while year-to-date return extended to +8.23%. This was largely due to interests on bellwethers like DANGCEM (+9.98%) and ACCESSCORP (+3.57%), respectively.
The NGX Banking, Consumer Goods, Industrial, and Oil & Gas Indices all gained 1.82%, 0.33%, 9.25% and 0.66%, day-on-day, respectively. LIVINGTRUST led the volume chart with ca 30.11 million units, while Zenith Bank Plc topped the value charts with ca ₦250 million worth of trades.
Foreign Exchange
FMDQ’s Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) rate depreciated by 50 kobo to ₦446.00/US$1.00 from ₦445.50/US$1.00, recorded the previous day.
Commodities
Oil prices fell on Wednesday, as the Group of Seven (G7) nations reviewed the price cap on Russian crude oil. Brent Crude Oil price lost ca 4.53% day-on-day to settle at US$84.34pb, while WTI lost ca 4.78% day-on-day to settle at US$77.08pb as at report time. Spot Gold rose ca 0.10% day-on-day to close at US$1,741.40 per ounce as of report time.
