At the end of today’s trading session, the Nigerian All Share Index closed negative, declining by 0.04% to close at 53,170.73 points.
Today’s performance was due to profit-taking in large-cap stocks such as ZENITHBANK (-2.35%) and GTCO (-0.89%). Consequently, the YTD return decreased to 24.47% as market capitalisation declined by ₦12.53 billion to close at ₦28.66 trillion.
The sectoral performance significantly strengthened as four of the five indices under coverage improved while the Banking index, the sole loser, fell by 1.20% on ZENITHBANK (-2.35%). The Insurance, the biggest gainer, improved by 1.47% on CORNERST (+8.93%). The Oil & Gas, Consumer goods and Industrial indices, followed suit, improving by 0.46%, 0.13% and 0.13% on OANDO (+3.33%), CADBURY (+2.10%) and WAPCO (+1.82%).
Investors’ sentiment weakened as the market breadth decreased to 0.88x from 0.89x. This was illustrated by the advance of 15 stocks, led by UPL (+9.43%) and CORNERST (+8.93%) and the decline of 17 stocks, led by CILEASING (-8.57%) and FTNCOCOA (-8.33%). Activity level strengthened as the total volume and value increased by 27.90% and 79.36% respectively, as investors exchanged about 318.42mn units of shares worth over ₦3.34bn.
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 compressed while the yields on the FGN-APR-2023 and FGN-JAN-2026 bond papers closed flat at 4.98% and 10.30. The yields on the FGN-MAR-2024 and FGN-JUL-2030 closed lower by 1bp and 19bps.
Treasury bill yield for the 91-day paper declined by 6bps to close at 3.48% while the 182 and 364-day paper yields closed flat at 3.89% and 5.07% respectively.
We expect market activity to be influenced by the liquidity levels in the financial system
MARKET SNAPSHOT
- Downward Trajectory Persists in the Local Bourse, NGX ASI Sheds 4bps
- Mixed Sentiment across the Bond Yield Curve
- Negative Performance in Global Stocks
- Brent Crude Reports at $123.32
- Negative Performance in African Stocks
