Bearish Sentiment Persists in the Local Bourse

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Nigerian Stock Market Closes Week In Red
Nigerian Stock Market Closes Week In Red

At the end of yesterday’s trading session, the Nigerian All Share Index extended its negative trajectory, declining further by 0.25% to close at 52,840.21 points.

 

Yesterday’s performance was due to profit-taking in bellwether stocks such as NB (-4.65%) and ZENITHBANK (-1.92%). Consequently, the YTD return decreased to 23.70% as market capitalisation decreased by ₦85.38 billion to close at  ₦28.47 trillion.

The sectoral performance weakened as four of the five indices under coverage declined. The Consumer goods index, the biggest loser, fell by 1.29% on NB (-4.65%). The Banking, Insurance and Oil & Gas indices followed suit, falling by 0.97%, 0.60% and 0.07% on ZENITHBANK (-1.92%), MANSARD (-4.67%) and ARDOVA (-0.33%) respectively. The Industrial index closed flat.

Investors’ sentiment weakened as the market breadth decreased to 0.52x from 0.70x. This was illustrated by the decline of 25 stocks, led by ROYALEX (-10.00%) and GSPECPLC (-9.75%) and the advance of 13 stocks, led by ELLAHLAKES (+9.62%) and PZ (+9.57%). Activity level was mixed as the total volume decreased by 7.08% while the total value advanced by 12.20%, as investors exchanged about 274.43mn units of shares worth over ₦4.03bn.

We expect negative sentiment to persist on the back of profit-taking activities on stocks that have significantly appreciated.

Fixed Income

There was mixed sentiment across the bond yield curve as two of the four bond yields under coverage inched higher while the FGN-MAR-2024 and FGN-JUL-2030 bond paper yields compressed by 1bp and 2bps respectively. The yields on the FGN-APR-2023 and FGN-JAN-2026 bond paper increased by 12bps and 15bps respectively.

Treasury bill yields for the 91 and 364-day paper rose by 50bps and 15bps to close at 3.22% and 5.07% respectively while the 182 day paper closed flat at 2.29%.

We expect market activity to be influenced by the liquidity levels in the financial system