The Nigerian equities market closed in red at the end of today’s trading session as the benchmark index declined by 0.01% to close at 44,604.74 points. This was mainly due to selloffs in bellwether stocks such as UNILEVER (-1.49%) and UACN (-521%).
Consequently, the YTD return decreased to 10.76% as market capitalization declined by ₦2.20 billion to close at ₦24.03trillion.
The sectoral performance was mixed as two of the five indices under coverage improved, two (Oil & Gas and Industrial indices) closed flat while the Insurance index, declined by 0.93% on CUSTODIAN (-9.49%). The Consumer Goods and Banking indices, the gainers, improved by 0.16% and 0.07% on INTBREW (+4.04%) and ZENITHBANK (+0.20%) respectively.
Investor sentiment weakened as the market breadth decreased to 0.93x from 1.60x. This was illustrated by the advance of 14 stocks, led by TRANSCORP (+9.71%) and CHIPLC (+7.94%) and the decline of 15 stocks, led by NEM (-10.000%) and CUSTODIAN (-9.49%). Activity level was mixed as the total volume improved by 20.81% while the total value declined by 4.37% as investors exchanged about 321.75million units of shares worth over ₦3.66billion.
We expect positive sentiment to persist in the next trading session as the equities market still presents decent opportunities for investors chasing positive real returns 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 11.29% and 12.61% respectively. Each of the yields on the FGN-APR-2023 and FGN-MAR-2024 compressed by 1bp.
Treasury bill yields for the 91, 182 and 364-day papers closed flat at 2.99%, 3.73% and 5.23% 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 Returns in the Local Bourse, NGX ASI Gains 171bps
- Mixed Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Positive Sentiment in Global Stocks
- Positive Performance in the Commodities Market
- Positive Performance in African Stock
