At the end of yesterday’s trading session, the Nigerian equities market closed positive as the benchmark index improved by 1.26% to close at 42,411.12 points. This was mainly due to buy pressures in bellwether stocks such as DANGCEM (+1.19%) and MTNN (+7.05%). Consequently, the YTD return increased to 5.32% as market capitalisation improved by ₦275.589 billion to close at ₦22.13 trillion.
The sectoral performance weakened as four of the five indices under coverage declined while the industrial index, the only gainer, improved by 0.66% on DANGCEM(+1.19%). The Oil & Gas index, the biggest loser, declined by 0.86% on OANDO (-4.26%). The Banking, Insurance and Consumer Goods followed suit, falling by 0.47%, 0.15% and 0.05% on ZENITHBANK (-1.76%), CORNERST (-6.00%) and NASCON (-6.79%) respectively.
Investor sentiment closed positive but lower than the previous trading session, as market breadth decreased to 1.44x from 1.85x. This was illustrated by the advance of 23 stocks, led by MEYER (+9.09%) and ACADEMY (+8.51%) and the decline of 16 stocks, led by NASCON (-6.79%) and CORNERST (-6.00%). Activity level weakened as the total volume and value declined by 48.39% and 3.92% respectively as investors exchanged about 229.64 million units of shares worth over ₦3.29 billion.
We expect positive sentiment 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 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 11.28% and 12.56% respectively. Both yields on the FGN-APR-2023 and FGN-APR-2024 bond papers compressed by 2bps.
Treasury bill yields for the 91-day paper increased by 55bp to close at 3.00% while the 182-day paper and 364-day paper closed flat at 3.74 and 5.64% 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
- Local Bourse Starts the Week in Green, NGX ASI Gains 126bps
- Mixed Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Negative Sentiment in Global Stocks
- Brent Crude Reports at N74.76/$1
- Mixed Performance in African Stocks
