(Greenwich Merchant Bank): The equity market closed bullish as the NGX-ASI and market capitalization gained 0.29% to 52,752.96 points and N28.73trillion respectively. The gain was due to price appreciation in OKOMUOIL +9.76%, CHAMPION +4.35%, MBENEFIT +6.06% and INTBREW +5.38%. Hence, year to date, it gained 2.93%.
Market activity was mixed as volume traded rose by 17.75%, while value traded declined by 26.91% to 133.37 million units and N1.87billion respectively.
Moreso, GTCO was the highest traded equity at today’s trading in terms of volume and value traded. Also, the market breadth was positive at 3.43x owning to the Twenty-four (24) counters that gained, while seven (7) counters lost.
On the sectoral performance, activities were majorly bullish with gains from Consumer Goods sector +0.05%, Insurance +1.01% , Oil & Gas sector +1.58% and the Banking sector +1.57%.
Fixed Income Market
Furthermore, system’s liquidity improved by 11.42% to N1,177.17bn from N1,056.79bn. However, the Open Buy-back (OBB) closed same at 10.50%. But, the Over-night rate increased to 11.0% from 10.83%.
At the NTB market, trading activities was bullish at all ends of the curve. Thus, average yield declined to 1.61% from 3.79%.
At the Bond market, trading activities were bullish across the mid and long end of the curve, thus average yield dipped by 9bps to 13.74% from 13.83%. Notably, the 18-APRIL-2037 instrument was the most actively traded today.
At the currency market, the Naira exchange rate appreciated by N0.45/ USD to close at N461.250/USD at the Investors’ and Exporters’ Window (I&EW).
