The Nigerian equities market closed negative at the end of today’s session as the benchmark index declined by 0.06% to close at 41,789.59 points.
This was mainly due to selloffs in bellwether stocks such as FBNH (-6.05%) and NESTLE (-0.36%). Consequently, the YTD return declined to 3.77% as market capitalisation decreased by ₦12.77 billion to close at ₦21.81 trillion.
The sectoral performance significantly strengthened as four of the five indices under coverage improved while the Consumer Goods index closed flat. The Oil & Gas index, the biggest gainer, increased by 1.70% on TOTAL (+5.97%). The Insurance, Banking and Industrial indices followed suit, rising by 1.54%, 0.51% and 0.05% on AIICO (+9.57%), ZENITHBANK (+0.81%) and WAPCO (+0.80%) respectively.
Investor sentiment strengthened in today’s trading session, as market breadth increased to 1.60x from 0.95. This was illustrated by the advance of 24 stocks, led by LIVINGTRUST (+9.59%) and AIICO (+9.57%) and the decline of 15 stocks, led by GLAXOSMITH (-10.00%) and TRANSCOHOT (-9.57%). Activity level weakened as total volume and value decreased by 19.43% and 42.49% as investors exchanged about 284.60 million units of shares worth over N3.20 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 bearish sentiment across the bond yield curve as 2 of the 4 bond yields under coverage closed higher, the yield on the FGN-JAN-2026 bond paper closed flat while the yield on FGN-JUL-2030 compressed by 10bps. The yields on the FGN-APR-2023 and FGN-APR-2024 bond papers compressed by 73bps and 47bps respectively.
Treasury bill yields for the 91, 182 and 364-day papers closed flat at 3.76%, 4.59% and 7.16%.
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 in the Local Bourse, NGX ASI Sheds 6bps
- Bearish Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Bearish Sentiment in Global Stocks
- Positive Performance in the Commodities Market
- Mixed Performance in African Stocks
