The Nigerian equities market closed in red at the end of today’s session as the benchmark index declined by 0.08% to close at 41,943.83 points.
This was mainly due to selloffs in bellwether stocks such as UNILEVER (-8.65%) and WAPCO (-1.92%). Consequently, the YTD return declined to 4.15% as market capitalisation decreased by ₦16.50 billion to close at ₦21.89trillion.
The sectoral performance significantly weakened as four of the five indices under coverage declined while the Insurance index improved by 1.29% on AIICO (+4.92%). The Oil & Gas index, the biggest loser, decreased by 0.64% on OANDO (-3.41%). The Consumer Goods, Banking and Industrial indices followed suit, falling by 0.58%, 0.51% and 0.13% on UNILEVER (-8.65%), UBA (-2.41%) and WAPCO (-1.92%) respectively.
Investor sentiment weakened in today’s trading session, as market breadth decreased to 0.52x from 0.65x. This was illustrated by the advance of 13 stocks, led by SCOA (+9.47%) and LINKASSURE (+7.55%) and the decline of 25 stocks, led by PHARMDEKO (-10.00%) and UNILEVER (-8.65%). Activity level weakened as total volume and value decreased by 45.08% and 31.63% as investors exchanged about 160.88 million units of shares worth over ₦1.41 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 mixed sentiment across the bond yield curve as 2 of the 4 bond yields under coverage closed lower while the yields on the FGN-JAN-2026 and FGN-JUL-2030 bond papers closed flat at 11.51% and 11.76% respectively. Both yields on the FGN-APR-2023 and FGN-APR-2024 bond papers compressed by 1bp.
Treasury bill yields for the 91 and 182-day papers closed flat at 4.22% and 4.81% respectively while the yield on the 364-day paper increased by 36bps to close at 7.51%.
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, NGX ASI Sheds 8bps
- Mixed Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Positive Sentiment in Global Stocks
- Positive Performance in the Commodities Market
- Negative Performance in African Stocks
