FIXED INCOME MARKETS
Money Market
Opening system liquidity significantly increased by 420.88% to ₦402.00 billion today, compared to Friday’s close, following some CRR refunds. Nonetheless, the Open Repo Rate and Overnight Rate increased by 46bps and 57bps to 16.71% and 17.50%, respectively.
Outlook: We expect rates to notch upward tomorrow.
Treasury Bills
The treasury bills market traded relatively quiet, given market attention towards the bond auction. Although, few buyside interests was noticed on selected papers. Overall, average mid-rate remained unchanged at 13.57%.
Outlook: We expect a similar activity tomorrow.
FGN Bonds
Today’s activity was centred on the FGN bond auction, as the DMO offered bonds worth ₦2.5 trillion. As a result, average mid-yield flattened at 16.65%.
Outlook: We expect the bond auction result to impact the direction of the market tomorrow.
Eurobonds
Activity in the Eurobonds market traded sideways today, but at a less aggressive pace, with jitters around U.S. Federal Reserve officials pointing to a more patient stance on rate cut. Overall, Nigeria’s average mid-yield increased by 3bps to close at 9.58%.
Outlook: We expect the mixed sentiment to linger.
Equities
The Nigerian equity market closed bearish today, given selloffs across several tickers, including DANGCEM (-10.00%) and MTNN (-10.00%). Thus, the ASI lost 3.15% to settle at 102,393.23 points while the year-to-date return settled at c.36.94% and total market capitalization was valued at ₦56.02 trillion.
Trading activity was negative, with -20.05% and -7.58% decline in the total volume and value traded, respectively. Further, GTCO led the volume chart with 28.85 million units while GEREGU led the value charts with ₦1.74 billion. All indices closed in the red. The Industrial and Consumer Goods lost 6.02% and 0.77%, respectively, while Banking and Oil & Gas Indices declined by 0.26% and 0.28%, respectively.
Outlook: We expect a similar momentum tomorrow.
Foreign Exchange
FMDQ’s Nigeria’s Autonomous Foreign Exchange (NAFEM) depreciated by 3.94% (or ₦60.58) to $/₦1,598.54 from $/₦1,537.96 recorded last Friday.
Outlook: We expect the volatility to persist.
Commodities
Oil prices edged down today as markets digested comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials pointing to a more patient stance regarding potential interest rate cuts. Brent crude reached $83.42 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) stood at $79.43 per barrel at the time of reporting. The price of gold increased to $2,028.10 per ounce at the same time.
Outlook: We expect geopolitical tensions to continue to weigh on crude oil prices.
