The Nigerian equities market closed in red at the end of today’s session as the benchmark index declined by 0.36% to close at 43,549.28 points.
This was mainly due to sell pressures in bellwether stocks such as ZENITHBANK (-0.41%) and UBA (-2.40%). Consequently, the YTD return declined to 8.14% as market capitalisation decreased by ₦82.46 billion to close at ₦22.73trillion.
The sectoral performance marginally weakened as three of the five indices under coverage declined, the Consumer Goods index improved by 0.02% on UNIVINSURE (+4.76%) while the Oil & Gas index closed flat. The Banking index, the biggest loser, weakened by 0.95% on UBA (-2.40%). The Insurance and Industrial indices followed suit, falling by 0.93% and 0.10% on CHIPLC (-8.33%) and CUTIX (-8.06%) respectively.
Investor sentiment weakened in today’s trading session, as market breadth decreased to 0.63x from 0.95x. This was illustrated by the advance of 12 stocks, led by UNITYBNK (+7.27%) and FTNCOCOA (+5.00%) and the decline of 19 stocks, led by CORNERST (-8.77%) and CUTIX (-8.06%). Activity level weakened as total volume and value decreased by 40.41% and 61.97% as investors exchanged about 161.31 million units of shares worth over ₦2.14 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 bullish sentiment across the bond yield curve as 2 of the 4 bond yields under coverage closed lower, the yield on the FGN-JUL-2030 increased by 2bps while the FGN-JAN-2026 bond paper closed flat at 9.58% and 11.90% respectively. The yields on the FGN-APR-2023 and FGN-APR-2024 bond papers compressed by 1bp and 14bps respectively.
Treasury bill yields for the 91-day paper increased by 17bps to close at 4.04%, the 182-day paper compressed by 13bps to close at 4.87% while the 364-day paper closed flat at 6.84%.
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 36bps
- Bullish Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Positive Sentiment in Global Stocks
- Positive Performance in the Commodities Market
- Mixed Performance in African Stocks
