At the end of yesterday’s trading session, the Nigerian equities market closed in green as the benchmark index increased by 0.21% to close at 47,157.23 points. Today`s performance was due to buying interest in large caps such as FLOURMILL (+4.34%) and ZENITHBANK (+0.37%). Consequently, the YTD return increased to 10.40% as market capitalisation improved by ₦53.88 billion to close at ₦25.41 trillion.
The sectoral performance strengthened as all the five indices under coverage improved. The Banking index, the biggest gainer improved by 1.68% on ZENITHBANK (+0.37%). The Consumer goods, Insurance, Oil and Gas and Industrial indices followed suit, increasing by 0.65%, 0.18%, 0.09% and 0.03% on FLOURMILL (+0.37%), NEM (+7.25%), OANDO (0.60%) and WAPCO (+0.38%) respectively.
Investors sentiment strengthened as the market breadth improved to 1.93x from 0.87x. This was illustrated by the advance of 27 stocks, led by RTBRISCOE (+10.00%) and SCOA (+9.49%) and the decline of 14 stocks, led by JULI (-9.89%) and MULTIVERSE (-4.76%). Activity level was mixed as the total volume increased by 24.78% while the total value declined by 6.77% as investors exchanged about 297.25 million units of shares worth over ₦4.69 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 bullish sentiment across the bond yield curve as all the 4 bond yields under coverage closed lower. The yields on the FGN-APR-2023, FGN-MAR-2024, FGN-JAN-2026 and FGN-JUL 2030 bond papers compressed by 1bp, 1bp, 25bps and 56bps respectively.
Treasury bill yield for the 91-day paper decreased by 1bp to close at 4.03% while the 182 and 364-day papers closed flat at 4.38% and 5.51% 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 21bps
- Bullish Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Positive Sentiment in Global Stocks
- Commodities Market in Green
- Positive Performance in African Stocks
