The Nigerian equities market closed in green at the end of yesterday’s trading session as the benchmark index improved by 0.58% to close at 44,655.89 points.
This was mainly due to buy pressures in bellwether stocks such as DANGSUGAR (+7.35%) and BUACEMENT (+2.00%). Consequently, the YTD return increased to 10.89% as market capitalisation improved by ₦138.05 billion to close at ₦24.06 trillion.
The sectoral performance significantly strengthened as four of the five indices under coverage improved. The Banking index, the biggest gainer, improved by 0.98% on ACCESS (+2.11%). The Industrial, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices, followed suit, increasing by 0.79%, 0.69% and 0.25% on BUACEMENT (+2.00%), DANGSUGAR (+7.35%) and ETERNA (+5.83%) respectively. Conversely, the Insurance index, the declined by 1.61% on NEM (-8.33%).
Investor sentiment strengthened as the market breadth increased to 2.08x from 0.73x. This was illustrated by the advance of 27 stocks, led by SKYAVN (+10.00%) and COURTVILLE (+8.57%) and the decline of 13 stocks, led by NEM (-8.33%) and SUNUASSUR (-5.88%). Activity level was mixed as the total volume increased by 9.76% while the total value declined by 28.65% as investors exchanged about 235.23million units of shares worth over ₦1.92billion.
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 relatively bearish sentiment across the bond yield curve as 3 of the 4 bond yields under coverage closed higher, the yield on FGN-MAR-2024 closed flat at 9.05%. The yields on the FGN-APR-2023, FGN-JAN-2026 and FGN-JUL-2030 bond papers compressed by 7bps, 2bps and 1bp respectively.
Treasury bill yields for the 91, 182 and 364-day closed flat at 2.99%, 4.39% and 5.22% 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 58bps
- Bearish Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Negative Sentiment in Global Stocks
- Positive Performance in the Commodities Market
- Mixed Performance in African Stocks
