Daily Financial Markets Update

Commentary

System liquidity rose by 3.45 to close the week with a surplus of ₦3.97 trillion. The Overnight (O/N) rate rose by 4bps to close the week at 22.20%, while Open Buy-Back (OBB) rate was unchanged, holding steady at 22.00%.

Commentary

The T-bills market ended the week on a bearish note, with selling pressure emerging at the long end of the curve. The 8-Apr-2027 bill led the move, rising by 30bps to 16.00%, while the 7-Jan-2027 bill edged marginally higher by 3bps to 16.27%. The 7-May-2026 bill remained unchanged. The average benchmark rate rose by 2bps, closing at 15.99%.

Commentary

The FGN bond market ended the week on a strong bearish note, as investors grew cautious over the government's borrowing plan ahead of Monday's DMO auction. Despite a reduction in the offer size to ₦700bn across the 2030, 2032, and 2035 maturities, selling pressure remained broad-based. The average benchmark yield rose by 20bps, closing at 16.04%.

Commentary

The SSA Eurobond market ended the week on a mixed note, as ongoing U.S.-Iran geopolitical tensions continued to drive contrasting price action across the region. Nigeria led gains, with yields declining by 6bps to 7.16%, while Angola tightened sharply by 7bps to 8.22%. Egypt bucked the trend, rising by 10bps to 7.45%.

Commentary

The local bourse closed the week on a positive note, as the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) gained 3.9% to settle at 225,724.3 points, while YTD return came in at 45.06%. Sectoral performance closed the week bullish, as most key indices recorded gains, reflecting cautious yet consistent buying interest. The Banking sector led the charge with a 10.70% gain, driven by a 16.42% rise in ETI over the week. This was followed by the Industrial Goods sector, which advanced strongly by 7.70% on the back of a 21.48% increase in WAPCO. The Consumer Goods sector also posted a 5.56% gain, supported by a 10.00% uptick in UNILEVER. Also, the Oil and Gas sector saw a more modest growth, edging higher by 4.18% led by a 4.74% gain in CONOIL, while the Insurance sector closed positive by a 0.77%, because of a 5.97% gain in NEM. Market breadth stood at 1.72x with 43 gainers and 25 losers. Market capitalization improved slightly to ₦145.334 trillion from ₦139.826 trillion. Trading activity closed the week bearish, with turnover value decreased to ₦44.51 billion from ₦54.353 billion while volume traded decreased to 627.616 million units from 1,258 million units.

Commentary

The U.S. traded mixed week on week. S&P (+0.46%), Russell (+0.58%), NASDAQ (+1.33%) due to optimism over possible U.S.–Iran talks and strong earnings while the Dow Jones slipped slightly by 0.39%. European markets closed the week bearish, with CAC (-3.17%) and STOXX (-2.54%), on strong earnings, while DAX (-2.31%), and FTSE (-2.71%) due to Middle East cost pressures, pharma weakness, and declines in bank and defence stocks. Asian markets closed the week mixed, with the Shanghai (+0.70%), Hang Seng (-0.70%), and Nikkei (+2.12%) due to strong tech rallies (e.g., SoftBank Group) and investor positioning ahead of the Bank of Japan policy decision amid rising inflation.