Local Bourse Starts the Week in Red, NSE ASI Sheds 2bps
The Nigerian equities market closed negative at the end of today’s trading session as the benchmark index declined by 0.02% to close at 39,252.89 points. This was mainly due to selloffs in bellwether stocks such as DANGSUGAR (-2.25%) and FLOURMILL (-4.17%). Consequently, the YTD loss worsened to -2.53% as market capitalisation decreased by ₦8.61 billion to close at ₦20.45 trillion.
The sectoral performance significantly strengthened as four of the five indices under coverage improved. The Banking index, the biggest gainer, improved by 0.48% on ZENITHBANK (0.62%). The Oil & Gas, Insurance and Industrial indices, followed suit, rising by 0.32%, 0.04% and 0.03% on OANDO (1.97%), LINKASSURE (8.93%) and WAPCO (0.45%) respectively. On the flip side, the Consumer Goods index, the only gainer under coverage, declined by 0.41% on DANGSUGAR (-2.25%).
Investor sentiment strengthened in today’s trading session, as market breadth increased to 1.40x from 0.81x. This was illustrated by the advance of 21 stocks, led by LINKASSURE (8.93%) and FTNCOCOA (8.89%) and the decline of 15 stocks, led by GLAXOSMITH (-9.56%) and CHIPLC (-8.62%). Activity level was mixed as total volume increased by 17.00% while the total value decreased by 19.55% as investors exchanged about 210.95 million units of shares worth over N1.38 billion.
We expect bullish momentum to return in the next trading session as the equities market still presents decent opportunities for investors chasing positive real return on investments.
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Fixed Income
There was relatively bullish sentiment across the bond yield curve as 2 of the 4 bond yields under coverage closed lower, the FGN-JAN-2026 closed higher by 14bps while the FGN-APR-2024 closed flat at 11.55%. The yields on the FGN-APR-2023 and FGN-JUL-2030 bonds compressed by 8bp and 4bps respectively.
Treasury bill yields for the 91 and 364-day papers both compressed by 1bp to close at 3.19% and 6.67% respectively while the yield on 182-day paper closed flat at 4.33%.
We expect a further decline in yields in the next trading session on the back of huge demand from investors and the deliberate efforts of the DMO to reduce borrowing costs.
