Nigerian bourse back in negative territory as Index down 0.25% Wednesday

The Nigerian equities market reversed gains from the previous session, as the ASI dipped by 0.25 per cent to 30,642.35 points following sell-offs across bellwether stocks.

Against that backdrop, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses increased to 0.75 per cent and 19.88 per cent, respectively.

Heavy losses were evident across most sector indices – Consumer Goods (-0.92%), Insurance (-2.04%), and Oil & Gas (-0.24%), and Banking (-0.10%).

The prominent stocks include NB (-3.18%), MANSARD (-10.00%), MOBIL (-5.50%), and UBA (-3.85%). Meanwhile, the Industrial index (+0.82%) closed positive following a positive return in DANGCEM (+0.27%).

Market breadth was positive with 24 gainers and 20 losers, led by CAP (+10.00%) and CONOIL (-10.00%) stocks respectively.

Total volume and value of trades expanded by 14.3 per cent and 8.7 per cent to 246.13 million units and NGN3.69 billion, respectively, and exchanged in 3,141 deals.

“ We reiterate our negative outlook for the equities market in the medium term amidst political concerns ahead of the 2019 elections. However, positive macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery in the long term”, analysts at Cordros Capital said.

The USD/NGN appreciated by 0.12 per cent to NGN364.77 in the I&E FX window, while it remained flat at NGN365 in the parallel market. Total turnover in the IEW declined by 12.3 per cent to USD315.68 million, with trades consummated within the NGN321.00-366.30/USD band.

For the Fixed Income and Money Market, the overnight lending rate moderated by 842 bps, closing at 62.50 per cent, in anticipation of tomorrow’s inflows from OMO and treasury bill maturities.

Proceedings in the NTB market were mixed, with a bullish tilt, as average yield shed 3 bps to close at 15.65%. Buy sentiment was spread across the mid (-18 bps), and long (-11 bps) segments, with yields on the 99DTM (-62 bps) and 218DTM (-32 bps) bills contracting, respectively.

Conversely, a selloff of the 36DTM (+55 bps) bill led to yield expansion at the short (+6 bps) end of the curve.

Sentiments in the bond market were bearish as average yield rose by 2 bps to 15.54 per centYields expanded at the mid (+3 bp) and long (+3 bp) segments, driven by selloffs of the MAR-2024 (+13 bps) and MAR-2036 (+9 bps) bonds, respectively. Yield at the short end of the curve was flat.