(Greenwich Merchant Bank): The local bourse witnessed bullish trading sentiment as gains in CHAMPION (+4.88%), FBNH (+3.74%), and FIDELTYBK (+2.10%) caused the ASI and market capitalization to experience a marginal rise by 12bps to close at 49,475.53 points and NGN26.94 trillion respectively. Consequently, the market year-to-date stands at 15.82%.
Market activity followed in similar fashion as total volume of trade increased by 58.06% to 158.16 million units, with total value of trade increasing by 316.84% to NGN5,40 billion. FBNH remained the most traded stock by volume with 55.9 million units traded, and GEREGU the most traded stock by value with NGN2,629 million turnover. Market breadth was strong, at 2.10x, emerging from twenty-one (21) gainers and ten (10) losers.
Similar to the market, performance across sectors was positive as Banking sector (0.22%), Consumer Goods sector (0.05%) and Oil & Gas (0.08%) recorded gains. The Insurance sector (-0.13%) recorded a loss, while Industrial sector (0.00%) remained unchanged.
Fixed Income Market
The NT-Bills market experienced buying pressure across all ends of the curve as yields fell by 248 bps. All the ten (10) instrument listed, traded, causing the average yield to fall to 5.68%.
The OMO market emulated the same mood as it closed bullish, leaving its average yield to move by 376bp from 10.72% to 6.96%.
The Bond market, like the other two market above was relatively active as buying pressure across the short and middle ends of the curve determined the movement of the market. 22-JAN-2026 instrument had the highest decline by 35bps to settle at 12.00% from 12.35%. Thereby, average yield closed lower by 6bps to settle at 13.56% from 13.61%.
The Open Buy Back and Over Night rates rose to 10.25% and 10.63% respectively as against the previous rates of 7.50% and 10.25%. Therefore, System liquidity dipped to a balance of NGN163.77 billion, representing a 5.86% decline from the previous figure.
For the I&E window, the Naira decreased by NGN3.66/USD to settle at NGN456.33.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
