Nigerian bourse down 0.14% Wednesday

Sentiments in the Nigerian equities market turned negative, as the market All-Share Index (ASI) dropped 0.14 per cent to 32,108.92 points, following sell pressure in value stocks.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses increased to 1.10 per cent and 16.04 per cent, respectively.

The Oil & Gas (-1.23%) and Banking (-0.30%) indices closed negative, following losses in the shares of ETERNA (-9.17%) and DIAMONDBNK (-9.52%), respectively.

On the flip side, interests in LAWUNION (+5.77%), HONYFLOUR (+6.00%), and CCNN (+0.56%) stocks led to gains in the Insurance (+0.21%), Consumer Goods (+0.05%), and Industrial Goods (+0.02%) indices, respectively.

Market breadth turned positive with 16 gainers and 15 losers, led by UNITYBNK (+8.97%) and DIAMONDBNK (-9.52%) stocks respectively. Total volume of trades dropped 42.65% to 229.26 million units, valued at NGN2.50 billion (+11.40%), and exchanged in 2,726 deals.

“Our outlook for equities in the short to medium term remains conservative, amidst brewing political concerns, and the absence of a one-off positive trigger. However, stable macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery in the long term”. Investors at Cordros Capital said on Wednesday.

Also, the naira weakened against the dollar by 0.15% to NGN364.24 in the I&E FX window, while it remained flat at NGN363 in the parallel market. Meanwhile, total turnover in the IEW was higher by 15.31 per cent to USD169.98 million, with trades consummated within the range of NGN358.00-NGN365.00/USD.

The overnight lending rate declined by 16 bps to close at 6.42 per cent, amidst still healthy liquidity.

Proceedings in the NTB market were mixed, albeit with a bullish tilt, as average yield compressed by 1 bp to 13.70 per cent. There was demand across the short (-4 bps), and mid (-3 bps) segments, with the yields on the 22DTM (-49 bps) and 99DTM (-15 bps) bills contracting, respectively.

Conversely, a selloff of the 260DTM (+23 bps) bill led to yield expansion at the long (+6 bps) end of the curve. At today’s primary action, the CBN fully allotted NGN128.24 billion worth of bills – NGN3.38 billion of the 91-day, NGN16.92 billion of the 182-day and NGN107.94 billion of the 364-day – at respective stop rates of 10.95% (previously 10.9752%), 13.16 per cent (previously 13.49%), and 14.45 per cent (previously 14.40%).

Trading in the bond market was slightly bullish, as average yield shed 2 bps to 115.44%. Demand was concentrated at the short (-5 bps) and long (-3 bps) ends of the curve, with yield on the FEB-2020 (-16 bps) and JUL-2034 (-5 bps) bonds recording significant contractions, respectively. On the flip side, a selloff of the JAN-2026 (+17 bps) bond led to yield expansion at the mid (+1 bp) segment.