The Nigerian equities market closed in green at the end of yesterday’s session as the benchmark index improved by 0.38% to close 41,051.19 points. This was mainly due to buy pressures in bellwether stocks such as OKOMUOIL (+8.23%) and WAPCO (+2.59%). Consequently, the YTD return improved to 1.94% as market capitalization increased by ₦80.36 billion to close at ₦21.39 trillion.
The sectoral performance totally strengthened as all the five indices under coverage improved. The Banking index, the biggest gainer, improved by 1.40% on ZENITHBANK (+1.02%). The Oil & Gas, Insurance, Consumer Goods and Industrial indices followed suit, rising by 0.51%, 0.42%, 0.35% and 0.15% on OANDO (+2.59%), CHIPLC (+9.09%) CADBURY(+4.29%) and WAPCO (+2.49%) respectively.
Investor sentiment strengthened but lower than the previous trading session, as market breadth decreased to 2.07x from 2.08x. This was illustrated by the advance of 29 stocks, led by TRANSCOHOT (+9.94%) and CHAMPION (+9.88%) and the decline of 14 stocks, led by FTNCOCOA (-8.00%) and ABCTRANS (-5.88%). Activity level weakened as total volume and value decreased by 20.87% and 12.36% as investors exchanged about 446.17 million units of shares worth over N4.47 billion.
Positive Performance Persists In The Local Bourse, NGX ASI Up 38bps
We expect bullish momentum to persist 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 FGN-APR-2023 compressed by 1bp. The yields on the FGN-APR-2024, FGN-JAN-2026 and FGN-JUL-2030 closed flat at 9.26, 10.70% and 11.99% respectively.
Treasury bill yields for the 91 and 182-day papers closed flat at 3.66% and 4.10% while the 364-day paper compressed by 1bp to close at 6.97% respectively.
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
- Positive Performance Persists in the Local Bourse, NGX ASI Up 38bps
- Quiet Activity across the Bond Yield Curve
- Mixed Sentiment in Global Stocks
- Positive Performance in the Commodities Market
- Bullish Sentiment in African Stocks