The Nigerian equities market closed positive at the end of yesterday’s trading session as the benchmark index improved by 0.15% to close at 45,957.35 points.
This was mainly due to buy pressures in bellwether stocks such as SEPLAT (+4.86%) and VITAFOAM (+5.46%). Consequently, the YTD return increased to 14.12% as market capitalisation improved by ₦36.01 billion to close at ₦24.76 trillion.
The sectoral performance strengthened as three of the five indices under coverage improved, the Industrial index closed flat while the Banking index declined by 0.11 on ZENITHBANK (-0.19%). The Oil & Gas index, the biggest gainer, improved by 2.55% on SEPLAT (+4.86). The Insurance and Consumer Goods indices, followed suit, increasing by 0.43% and 0.33% on AIICO (+0.02%) and FLOURMILL (+0.88%) respectively.
Investor sentiment weakened, though positive as the market breadth decreased to 1.50x from 3.00x. This was illustrated by the advance of 21 stocks, led by NNFM (+9.72%) and COURTVILLE (+9.52%) and the decline of 14 stocks, led by REGALINS (-4.55%) and SOVRENINS (-4.00%). Activity level weakened as the total volume and value decreased by 67.76% and 92.35% as investors exchanged about 281.59 million units of shares worth over ₦2.41 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 returns on investments.
Fixed Income
There was relatively bullish sentiment across the bond yield curve as 3 of the 4 bond yields under coverage closed lower while the yield on FGN-JUL-2030 closed flat at 12.62%. The yields on the FGN-APR-2023, FGN-MAR-2024 and FGN-JAN-2026 bond papers compressed by 1bp, 1bp and 2bps 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
- Local Bourse Closes the Week in Green, NGX ASI Gains 15bps
- Bullish Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Negative Sentiment in Global Stocks
- Negative Performance in the Commodities Market
- Positive Performance in African Stocks
