The Nigerian equities market closed in red at the end of today’s trading session as the benchmark index declined by 0.71% to close at 38,921.78 points.
This was mainly due to selloffs in bellwether stocks such as UBA (-3.18%) and OANDO (-0.85%). Consequently, the YTD loss worsened to -3.35% as market capitalisation decreased by N141 billion to close at ₦20.28 trillion.
The sectoral performance was mixed as two of the five indices under coverage improved, two declined while the Industrial index closed flat. The Insurance and Consumer Goods indices increased, rising by 0.10% and 0.02% on AIICO (4.21%) and DANGSUGAR (0.57%) respectively. On the flip side, the Banking and Oil & Gas indices declined by 0.84% and 0.16% on UBA (-3.18%) and OANDO (-0.85%).
Investor sentiment improved in today’s trading session, as market breadth increased to 0.67x from 0.43x. This was illustrated by the advance of 14 stocks, led by VERITASKAP (9.52%) and AIICO (4.21%) and the decline of 21 stocks, led by LINKASSURE (-6.56%) and CADBURY (-5.88%). Activity level weakened as total volume and value declined by 55.91% and 32.30 as investors exchanged about 154.56 million units of shares worth over N2.27 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.
Fixed Income
There was relatively quiet activity across the bond yield curve as 3 of the 4 bond yields under coverage closed flat while the yield on the FGN-APR-2023 compressed by 1bp. The yields on the FGN-APR-2024, FGN-JAN-2026 and FGN-JUL-2030 bonds closed flat at 9.72%, 10.78% and 11.56% respectively.
Treasury bill yields for the 91 and 182-day papers closed flat at 3.51% and 4.45% respectively while the yield on the 364-day paper increased by 49bps to close at 7.39%.
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.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
- Negative Performance Persists in the Local Bourse, NSE ASI Sheds 71bps
- Quiet Activity across the Bond Yield Curve
- Bullish Performance in Global Stocks
- Parallel Market Reports at N545/$
- Mixed Sentiment in African Stocks
