Mild bargain hunting activities by investors triggered an increase in bond prices while yields nose-dived. There was increased demand for long-term instruments maturing between  10 to 20 years despite the liquidity tightness in the money market.

Market watchers have attributed the rise in the price of bond during the week which ended June 15, 2012 to the fact that there was slow down in the sell-off of bond holdings by foreign investors.

In  specific terms, the 20-years,  10.00 percent FGN bond maturing in July 2030 rose by N0.11 with its yield moderating to 14.43 per cent even as the 10-year, 7.00 per cent FGN bond with a mature date of October 21019 adding N0.11 while yield dropped to 0.11 per cent.

Also, the 7-year, 9.25 per cent FGN debt paper which is to mature in September 2014 appreciated by N0.09 even as yield softened to 15.62 percent while the 3-year, 10.50 percent FGN bond maturing March 2014 gained N0.05 just as yield dropped to 15.63 per cent.

On the flip side, the 5-year, 4.00 per cent FGN bond with a maturing day of April 2015 finished flat during the review week.

In all, the over-the-counter (OTC) bond recorded a turnover of 93.02 million units of FGN bond worth N81.05 billion executed in 764 deals in the week under review as against the 118.96 million units of FGN bonds exchanged by investors in 823 trades at the value of N112.15 billion.

The equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) surged by 1.35 per cent as the market indicators finished in the green territory during the week.

The NSE All Share Index having opened the week at 20,902.95 basis points added 135  points to finish at 21,184.58 basis points increasing the year-to-date performance to 2.19 per cent according to market watchers.

Also the market capitalisation of listed equities boosted by the supplementary listing of rights issues totalling 1,149,611,749 units of International Breweries Plc rose from N6.67 trillion recorded the previous week to N6.76 trillion.

Two of the sectorial  indices tilted upwards  as the NSE 30 index surged by 1.25 per cent to close at 964.14 basis points while the NSE consumer goods Index rose by 0.05 per cent to finish at 1,699.99 basis points.

On the downside, the NSE Banking index dipped by 0.83 per cent to close at 298.43 basis points even as the NSE Insurance Index dropped by 2.45 per cent to close at 118.82 points while the  NSE Oil/Gas depreciated by 4.97 per cent to close at 178.04 points.

The market recorded a total volume of 2.76 billion units of shares valued at N7.99 billion in 16,961 deals last week up from a total of 1.14 billion units of shares at the cost of N8.86 billion exchanged by investors in 18,880 deals in the previous week.

In volume terms, the financial services sector of the equities market was the most active with a recorded volume of 2.36 billion units of shares worth N4.88 billion exchanged in 9,625 trades. The conglomerates sector followed with a turnover volume of 211.72 million units of shares valued at N466.05 million in 1,004 deals.

Vivian-Peace Nwinaene