(Greenwich Market Bank): The Local bourse ticked upwards as the NGX-ASI and Market Capitalisation recorded gains of 0.22% to settle at 48,675.24 points and NGN26,253.84 million respectively. The rise witnessed today could be attributed to gains in the share price of NEM (10.00%), HONYFLOUR (2.77%), STERLNBANK (1.33%) and ETI (8.00%). Thus, bringing the Year-to-Date to 13.95%.
However, market sentiment was mixed as volume traded decreased by 17.76% (167.57 million units) and value traded increased by 6.02% (NGN3,373 million) respectively. ACCESSCORP was the equity with highest volume traded while MTNN posted the highest market turnover for the second day in a row. Market breadth was negative at 1.36x; owing to fifteen (15) gainers and eleven (11) losers.
Sector performance was bullish as the Banking sector (0.56%), Oil & Gas sector (0.16%), Industrial sector (0.47%), Consumer Goods sector (0.09%) and Insurance sector (2.17%) closed in profit.
Fixed Income Market
For the second consecutive trading day, the short side of the fixed income market remained calm emulating the previous day sentiment. All yields closed flat, resulting in the average yield closing the same as the previous trading day at 7.78% and 10.71% at the NT-bills and OMO market apiece.
While in the Bond market, three instruments traded, with the 23-Mar-2025 instrument emerging with the highest movement and only sold instrument. This led to a rise in the average yield by 5bps to settle at 13.07% from
13.02%.
System liquidity declined further to a negative balance of NGN159.92billion from a negative balance of NGN49.07 majorly due to the Repurchase Agreement. This led to the close of the Open Buy Back to settle at 15.0% from 14.50% while the Overnight rate stayed steady at 15.0%.
Naira continued its upward rise to NGN431.00/USD from NGN430.67/USD at the Investors and Exporters Window.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
