At the end of yesterday’s trading session, the Nigerian equities closed in red as the benchmark index declined by 0.43% to close at 46,960.29 points. Yesterday’s performance was due to selloffs in bellwether stocks such as ZENITHBANK (-1.12%) and GTCO (-1.29%). Consequently, the YTD return decreased to 9.93% as market capitalisation declined by ₦109.757 billion to close at ₦25.31 trillion.
The sectoral performance was mixed as two of the five indices under coverage declined, two improved while the Industrial index closed flat. The Banking and Consumer Goods Indices, the losers, declined by 0.09% and 0.07% on ZENITHBANK (-1.12%) and FLOURMILL (-3.13%) respectively. Conversely, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices, the gainers, rose by 0.87% and 0.73% on OANDO (+6.38%) and AIICO (+6.06%) respectively.
Investors’ sentiment was positive but flattish as the market breadth increased to 1.14x from 1.00x. This was illustrated by the advance of 16 stocks, led by VERITASKAP (+9.52%) and FCMB (+7.46%) and the decline of 14 stocks, led by RTBRISCOE (-9.72%) and CHIPLC (+9.09%). Activity level weakened as the total volume and value decreased by 19.73% and 18.35% respectively as investors exchanged about 214.70mn units of shares worth over ₦2.63bn.
We expect positive sentiment to return 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 two of the four bond yields under coverage closed lower while the yields on the FGN-JAN-2026 and FGN-JUL-2030 increased by 1bps and 14bps respectively. The yields on the FGN-APR-2023, and FGN-MAR-2024 compressed by 2bps and 1bp respectively.
Treasury bill yield for the 91-day paper closed flat at 1.88% while the 182 and 364-day bond yields inched up by 4bps and 15bps to close at 3.04% and 4.02%.
We expect market activity to be influenced by the liquidity levels and foreign investors’ participation.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
- Negative Performance Returns in the Domestic Bourse, NGX ASI Sheds 43bps
- Mixed Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Positive Performance in Global Stocks
- Commodities Market Closes in Green
- Negative Performance in African Stocks
