Daily Financial Markets Update

Commentary

System liquidity opened with a surplus of ₦6.89 trillion. The Overnight (O/N) rate closed flat at 22.21%, while Open Buy-Back (OBB) rate was unchanged, holding steady at 22.00%.

Commentary

The T-bills market traded on a bullish note today. The CBN also conducted an OMO auction across three tenors, attracting a total subscription of ₦2.71trn against a total offer of ₦600bn, with total sales of ₦1.57trn. The 126-day bill was the most sought after, allotted at a stop rate of 20.10%. The average benchmark rate declined by 3bps, closing at 16.02%.

Commentary

The FGN bond market traded on a slightly bullish note today, with the 20-Mar-2027 bond leading gains, declining by 15bps to 17.80%. The 25-Jun-2032 bond rose by 11bps to 16.93%, while the rest of the curve remained largely unchanged. The average benchmark yield declined by 1bp, closing at 16.08%.

Commentary

The SSA Eurobond market traded on a bearish note today, as a higher-than-expected U.S. CPI print of 3.8% against market consensus of 3.7% dampened risk sentiment, reinforcing fears of a prolonged high-rate environment. Sovereign yields widened broadly across the region, with Angola leading the move, rising by 14bps to 8.02%, while Nigeria and Egypt each rose by 7bps to 7.06% and 7.15% respectively.

Commentary

The local bourse closed the day on a positive note, as the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) gained 0.77% to close at 252,411.7 points for the day, pushing the year-to-date return to 62.20%. Sectoral performance closed the day on a mixed note, as gains in some sectors were offset by losses in others. The Consumer Goods sector gained 1.55%, led by a solid 9.94% gain in NB. The Oil and Gas sector increased marginally by 3.40%, supported by an 6.89% uptick in the share price of ARADEL. Similarly, the Banking sector recorded a slight gain of 1.87%, driven by buying interest of 6.22% in ACCESSORP. While on the other hand, the Industrial Goods sector posted a modest decline of 0.49%, led by sell-off of 1.56% in CUTIX. The Insurance sector closed lower, down by 1.40%, following a decline of 7.74% in AIICO. Market breadth stood at 1.30x with 43 gainers and 33 losers. Market capitalization improved to ₦161.61 trillion from ₦160.253 trillion. Trading activity closed the day bullish, with turnover value increased to ₦87.71 billion from ₦68.45 billion while volume traded increased to 2,027.90 million units from 1,485.88 million units.

Commentary

U.S. market is trading bearish, S&P 500 (-0.84%), Nasdaq (-1.71%), Dow Jones (-0.34%), and Russell (-2.18%) as a rally in tech names halted and investors assessed the latest consumer inflation reading for insight into the impact of the Iran war on the economy. European markets closed bearish. STOXX (-1.05%), DAX (-1.54%), CAC (-0.95%) and FTSE (-0.04%) driven by fading hopes for a swift resolution to the US-Iran conflict, which has pushed oil prices higher and increased investor risk aversion. Asian markets closed the day mixed. Nikkei (+0.52%) on sustained AI-driven optimism, Shanghai (-0.25%) on profit-taking ahead of the Trump-Xi summit and Hang Seng (-0.22%) on fading tech momentum and escalating Middle East tensions.