RFA Breakfast Paper - September 23, 2026

Nigeria Leads African Eurobond Advance

Nigeria's 2034 USD bond firmed to 118.00 (+0.25%), the strongest move across the African sovereign complex, as Angola 32 (+0.10%), Ghana 35 (+0.17%) and South Africa 36 (+0.17%) also advanced, a notable divergence from the U.S. Treasury market, where the 10-year yield jumped about 15 basis points to a 2007 high. The resilience rests on domestic tailwinds: the CBN's 350bp rate cut to 23% on Tuesday, headline inflation easing to 15.39% in August, external reserves at an 18-year high above $54bn, and FTSE Russell's reclassification of Nigeria to Frontier Market status (effective 21 September), which is pulling foreign portfolio flows back into naira and hard-currency assets. Firmer secondary prices and compressing yields lower the cost of any near-term external refinancing for the sovereign, and signal that improving domestic fundamentals are, for now, outweighing a hostile global rates backdrop.

Yields Hit 2007 High as Stocks Retreat

U.S. equities fell for a second straight session as a sharp Treasury sell-off unsettled risk assets. The 10-year yield climbed roughly 15bps to 5.11%, its highest since 2007, and the 5-year breached 5% for the first time since then, after S&P Global's PMI showed business activity at its strongest in over five years — reviving fears the Fed will hold rates higher for longer. The Nasdaq shed 1.13% and the S&P 500 lost 0.75%, with small caps (Russell 2000 -1.6%) hardest hit; energy was the only S&P sector to advance as rate-sensitive growth names led the retreat.

Banks Drive NGX to Fresh Record High

The All-Share Index rose 0.23% to a record 251,191.02, lifting market capitalisation to an all-time ₦163.06trn, a ₦374bn gain. Breadth was firmly positive at 43 gainers to 20 losers, and turnover jumped nearly 90% to 1.59 billion shares across 49,736 deals. Tier-one banks did the heavy lifting: the NGX Banking Index added 0.85%, with Fidelity Bank (170.7m shares) and GTCO (86.2m) topping activity as FTSE Frontier reclassification inflows continued. ETERNA (+10.0%) led the gainers, while Caverton (-9.1%) paced the handful of decliners. The move extends the exchange's record run, still powered by banking demand and optimism after Tuesday's rate cut.